
(fes -T Vr 



Book 



PRESENTED HY 



SUjr Iniurnntg of (Slftraga 

EOUNDKD DY JOHN D. BOCK* TELLE K 



A New Theory Concerning the 
Origin of the Miracle Play 



A DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND 

LITERATURE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF 

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

(DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH) 



BY 
GEORGE RALEIGH COFFMAN 



MEN ASH A, WIS. 

dht Cx»ll»gi«t» ^nn 

GEORGE BANTA PUBLISHING CO. 

1914 



QJIjr Mnturrfitty oi fflljtragD 

FOUNDED BY JOHN D. HOCKFFELLER 



A New Theory Concerning the 
Origin of the Miracle Play 



A DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND 

LITERATURE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF 

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

(DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH) 



BY 
GEORGE RALEIGH COFFMAN 



MENASHA, WIS. 

£hr tollrgintr |fti( 

GEORGE BANTA PUBLISHING CO. 

1914 






Gift 

FEft I !9!5i 



i 



CONTENTS 



Chapter I, Definition i 

Chapter II, Analysis of Traditional Theories 

The Theory of Evolution 9 

The Farced Epistle Theory 13 

The School Saints' Theory 17 

Chapter III, The Mediaeval Point of View 

Prefatory 24 

The Cult of the Saints 25 

Pilgrimages to Saints' Tombs 30 

Festivals of Saints 32 

Mediaeval Monasteries 37 

The Mediaeval Renaissance 40 

Chapter IV, St. Nicholas and His Miracle Plays 

The Cult of St. Nicholas 45 

Significance of the Evidence 49 

Origin of the Miracle Play 58 

Chapter V, The Resurrection of Lazarus, and the Con- 
version of St. Paul 

The Resurrection of Lazarus 67 

The Conversion of St. Paul 70 

Chapter VI, St. Catherine and Her Play 72 

Summary of Evidence 79 



PREFACE 

It was my original plan in this problem relating to the early 
Miracle Play, (i) to make a critical inquiry into the various 
theories advanced concerning its origin, (2) to study the influences 
which led to the formation of saints' plays, (3) to reconstruct the 
lost St. Catherine play performed at Dunstable, England, before 
1119,(4) to study the early St. Nicholas plays in relation to con- 
temporary school plays, and (5) to examine later records and 
Miracle Plays in England to show that contrary to the statements of 
some historians of the drama the type persisted there and did not 
give its name to the cyclic and other religious plays. My study of 
the first of these propositions in relation to the second and third 
led me to reject the current theories and to propose in detail the 
one summarized in the closing pages of this dissertation. This re- 
sulted in a necessary subordination of the fourth and a complete 
exclusion of the fifth. These I expect to make subjects for further 
investigation. Dr. Weydig's dissertation, Beitraye zur Geschichtc 
des Mirakelspiels in Frankreich, necessitated my devoting an 
initial chapter to an analysis and rejection of his definition of 
Miracle Play, and to the establishing of another as the basis for 
my work. 

In a word, the thesis of this dissertation is that circumstances 
and conditions of the eleventh century explain the origin of the 
Miracle Play, not only as to its type, but also as to its form and 
spirit. In this connection, I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness 
to Professor Joseph Bedier, whose studies on the origins of the 
Chanson de Geste (e. g., Les Legendes Epiques) have influenced 
very greatly my method of investigation, and whose thesis I have 
just now paraphrased to fit my particular problem. Professor Karl 
Young of the University of Wisconsin kindly read my dissertation 
last summer and gave many helpful suggestions. It is a pleasure 
also to express my thanks to Professor J. W. Thompson of the 
History Department of the University of Chicago for suggesting 
some of the material in the third chapter. To Professor Karl 
Pietsch of the Romance Department I am grateful for constant 
helpfulness relative to mediaeval materials. I am obliged to Pro- 
fessors C. R. Baskervill, A. H. Tolman, T. A. Knott, and R. M. 



VI INTRODUCTION 

Lovett, and to my colleague, Professor G. F. Reynolds, for their 
kindness in reading my dissertation in manuscript. I appreciate 
too the co-operation of Miss Gettys of the University library, who 
secured for me books from other libraries. And finally I wish 
especially to thank Professor J. M. Manly for suggesting the study 
and thereby opening a rich field for further investigation, for the 
use of his books and unpublished notes, and for his invaluable 
criticism and unwearied encouragement; to Professors Manly and 
G. L. Kittredge I owe much for inspiring in me a love for the life 
and literature of the middle ages. 

For the convenience of the reader I have added at the close 
a special index to bibliographical matter cited in the footnotes. 

Missoula, Montana, December 15, 1914. 



CHAPTER I. 
Definition 

In the present study I purpose to discuss the origin of the 
Miracle Play. At the outset I shall briefly define the type. 1 

As a prefatory suggestion, an important fact to remember is 
that the type to be defined became a popular fashion in dramatic 
literature during the middle ages. Hence one must guard against 
considering as the type special plays which are included within it. 
It is essential, further, in defining this term to make a clear and 
logical distinction between miracle (Lat. miraculum, Fr. miracle} 
referring only to the content of mediaeval literary productions, and 
miracle referring to the dramatic form as well as to the content. 

In a recent dissertation upon the history of the Miracle Play 
in France, Dr. Otto Weydig proposes a definition which demands 
our attention, for it illustrates the failure to observe the principles 
just stated. The definition which he proposes is as follows: The 
Miracle Play is the dramatic development of a general, human event 
whose tragic conflict is brought to a solution through the divine 
appearance and miraculous intervention of a saint 2 . 

A limitation which he makes to certain particular saints will 
be mentioned and considered a little later. The method by which 
he arrives at his definition is that of collecting illustrations of the 
use of the word miracle in connection with the presentation of 
mediaeval plays, and giving an uncritical interpretation to these 
examples. An analysis of his citations will make this clear. 

The first example which he gives us is from the Fleury group 
of St. Nicholas plays. It is in the opening sentence of the argument 
preceding the third play, and reads thus : "Aliud miraculum de 
sancto Nicolao et quodam Judaeo, etc." 3 

1 Historians of the drama have confused greatly the actual use of this 
term in England down to the Elizabethan period. A critical inquiry into such 
usage is much needed, but is aside from the purpose of this dissertation. 
However, I hope soon to complete and publish such a study. 

2 Beitrage zur Geschichtc des Mirakelspiels in Fronkreich. Das Xiko- 
lousmirakel (Jena Diss., Erfurt, iojo), pp. 9-10: "Das Mirakelspiel ist die 
dramatische Entwicklung einer allgemein Begebenheit, deren tragischer 
Konflikt durch das meist iiberirdische Erscheinen eines Heiligen (resp. der 
Jungfrau Maria) und dessen Eingreifen zur Losung gebracht wird." 

8 E. Du Meril, Les Origincs Latines du Theatre Modcrnc (1897), p. -So. 
note. 1 



2 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

Dr. Weydig 4 cites this as an early and definite reference to 
miracle, meaning dramatic form. But compare with his illustration 
the following from the table of contents in the Legendarium Austri- 
acum, relative to the life of St. Nicholas : "Miraculum de Adeodato 
puero," "Miraculum de vase aureo," 5 or with this from the cata- 
logue of saints' material in manuscripts in the Ambrosian library: 
"De beato Nicholao miracula", 6 or with this, relative to St. Cath- 
erine, taken from a similar catalogue of the Brussels royal library: 
"Aliud miraculum de reliquiis beatae Katherinae in mare projectis 
sed per angelum collectis." 7 

Now no one would think of arguing that these are references 
to miracle plays, yet they are of exactly the same kind as Dr. 
Weydig's example. The word miracle in all these cases indi- 
cates, not the type or dramatic form, but only the content of the 
matter. 

Dr. Weydig's second example is as far from the point as the 
first; and his interpretation is fully as uncritical. He calls 
attention to Jean Bodel's use of the word miracle in his pro- 
logue to "Li Jeus de S. Nicolai" (vv. 108-111) : 
"Car canques vous nous verres faire 
Sera essamples sans douter 
Del miracle representer 
Ensi con je devise 1 'ai." 

He regards this as showing that, although Jean Bodel called 
his drama "Li Jeus de S. Nicolai," "jeus" was employed only 
in the sense "par personnages," while the actual title was miracle.* 

4 See Wedig, p. 4. 

6 Analecta Bollandiana, Vol. XVII (1898), p. 209. In this and the 
following cases, examples could be multiplied almost indefinitely. 

6 Ibid., XII (1892), p. 352. 

7 Catal. Codd. Hagiog. Bibl. Reg. Bruxel. (1886), p. 166. Take also the 
use of the word miracle in the farced epistle for the feast of St. Stephen 
(Du Meril, op. cit., p. 411) : 

Saint Esteinvres pleins de bonte 



einz a la peuple doctrine 
et par miracles demonstre 
coment il vienge a sauvete. 
8 Op. cit., p. 8. 



3 

Here, again, critical analysis shows that the important and 
characterizing word, which refers to the dramatic form, is not 
miracle but re presenter. This becomes evident if one ootnp 
it with the verbs lirre, chantier, and reciter in a passage, simi- 
lar in significance, from Wace's life of St. Nicholas. They occur 
at the close of Wace's account of the miracle in which St. 
Nicholas restores to life three scholars murdered by an inn- 
keeper (vv. 226-229) : ° 

"Por ceo que as clers fist tiel honor 

Font li clerc feste a icel jor, 

De bien lirre, de bien chantier 

E des miracles recitier." 
Thus miracle in Jean Bodel, as well as in Wace, refers, not to 
the dramatic form of the entertainment, but to the superhuman 
act of St. Nicholas. 10 

The next two examples which I take from Dr. Weydig are 
like in kind to those just given, the principal difference being 

9 La Vie de Saint Nicholas, ed., Dr. N. Delius, (Bonn, 1850). 

10 A notable error of the same kind as this one which Dr. Weydig makes, 
occurs in Creizenach's interpretation of the word miraculorum in an extract 
from the Lichfield statutes (Lichfield Statutes of Hugh de Nonant, 1188-1198; 
quoted by E. K. Chambers, The Mediaeval Stage (1903), Vol. II, p. 377) : 
"Item in nocte Natalis representacio pastorum fieri consueuit et in diluculo 
Paschae representacio Resurreccionis dominicae et representacio peregrinorum 
die lunae in septimana Paschae sicut in libris super hijs ac alijs compositis 

continetur De officio succentoris et providere debet 

quod representacio pastorum in nocte Natalis domini et miraculorum in nocte 
Paschae et die lunae in Pascha congrue et honorifice fiant." Professor Creize- 
nach (Geschichtc des neueren Dramas (1911), Vol. 1, p. 159) in a footnote 
to the following, cites this as a case of loose usage: "Im ubrigen miissen wir, 
wenn in den Quellen von Mirakelspielen die Rede ist, uns stets daran erin- 
nern, dass im mittelalterlichen Sprachgebrauch die dramatischen Gattungs- 
begriffe nicht streng auseinandergehalten werden." On the contrary, the 
word miraculorum as employed here is not at all a case of loose usage. The 
correct interpretation is, as Professor Manly has suggested to me, that the 
term applied to the dramatic presentation is not miraculorum but representa- 
cio. Thus there is a "representacio pastorum peregrinorum. . . 

. . miraculorum." Miraculorum here refers to the marvels or miraculous 
events which formed the subject matter of the play. E. K. Chambers, also, 
(II, 104 footnote) cites this as standing for "representacio", but misquotes. 
His text reads "miraculum in nocte Paschae" instead of "miraculorum etc." 



4 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

that they are chronologically later. The former of the two, the 
opening words of Rustebeuf's play, Theophile, reads "Ci com- 
mence le miracle de Theophile;" and the latter, the heading over 
each of the Miracles de Notre Dame of the fourteenth century, 
runs "Cy commence un miracle de Notre Dame." X1 

These he regards as indicating a distinct and independent type 
of drama. Obviously, they do nothing of the sort. The ref- 
erences are to the content and not to the dramatic form of the 
plays. As an illustration of this same usage, take the title of 
a thirteenth century group of narrative miracles de Notre Dame 
de Chartres written by a Jehan le Marchant. It reads, "Ci com- 
mencent les miracles Nostre Dame 12 quel fit par siglise de Char- 
tres feire." 

In fact, the "Ci commence un miracle" is merely a translation 
of the conventional title to the mediaeval Latin narrative 
miracle, "(Hie) incipit miraculum etc." A case in point is 
"Incipit miraculum de adolescente quern sancta virgo Maria de 
inferno liberavit." 13 

The only instance which Dr. Weydig cites of usage in the 
fifteenth century relating to the drama is an extract from the 
statutes of the church of Toul, France, which reads "Fiunt ibi 
moralitates vel simulacra miraculorum cum farcis." 14 

In this case the dramatic type under consideration is not 
miracle but morality; and an explanation of the representations 
included in this type is simulacra miraculorum, i. e. imitations, 
not of Miracle Plays but of marvels or miraculous events. 15 

11 Op. cit., p. 8. 

12 Le Livre des miracles de Notre Dame de Chartres, ecrit en vers au XHIe 

Steele par Jehan le Marchant, publie par M. G. Duplessis. 

(Chartres, 1855). 

"A. Mussafia, Ueber die von Gautier de Coincy beniitsten Quellen 
(Denkschriften der konigl. Akad. der Wissenschaft in Wien, phil-hist. Classe 
[1894], XLIV, p. 17). Further examples of the use of incipit in this same 
general sense are "Incipit relatio de miraculis eiusdem prothomartyris (St. 
Stephen)" (Cat. Codd. Hagiog. Bibl. Reg. Brux., I, p. 75), "Incipit vita Sancti 
Florini confessoris" (ibid., I, p. 122), "Item alia incipit relatio de translatione 
Sancti Albani martyris" (ibid., I, p. 199). Professor Manly tells me that 
this convention is almost universal. 

14 From E. Du Meril (op. cit.), p. 59, footnote. See Weydig, p. 10. 

15 That Du Cange (Glossarium ad Scriptores Mediae et Infimae Latini- 
tatis, ed. 1885, II, p. 515) regards this as the interpretation is shown by his 



DEFINITION S 

Thus in all Dr. Weydig's material which we have analyzed 
miracle refers only to the content of the literary production- 
mentioned. 

But there are in mediaeval records two references to the 
Miracle Play as a dramatic type. These make clear what the 
technique is and afford a sound basis for a working definition. 
One of the two is the remaining example employed by Dr. Weydig ; 
it is a reference to a lost St. Catherine play performed at 
Dunstable, England, about noo. To secure logical division in 
my analysis I . have purposely avoided considering this reference 
earlier. Before taking it up, I quote, as pertinent in this dis- 
cussion, Dr. Weydig's limitation of Miracle Play to certain, par- 
ticular saints. It runs as follows: "As saints only St. Nicholas 
and the Virgin Mary come actively into consideration." 16 

Dr. Weydig's reference is the well-known one from Matthew 
Paris, 17 a monk of St. Albans, England, who about 1240 wrote, 
and compiled from the work of preceding historians, a history of 
his monastery. The information of immediate importance to us in 
the passage quoted below is that Geoffrey, while a schoolmaster at 



definition glossed under moralitas: "Actio scenica informandis moribus 
destinata, ut putabant ; quamquam in ea sacra mysteria sanctorumque facta 
ridicule agerent, nostris moralite." Then as an illustration, follows the 

passage in question : "Vide infra in Pius 2. Stat. mss. Eccl. 

Tull. an. 1497 fol. 67r: Fiunt ibi moralitates vel simulacra miraculorum cum 
farcis et similibus jocalis, semper tamen honestis." 

"Weydig, op. cit., p. 10. 

17 1 insert the entire passage from Matthew Paris because the evidence 
which it contains is important, not only here, but elsewhere in our study. 
Vitae Abbatum St. Albani (London, 1684), p. 1007. "Iste (Gaufridus) de 
Caenommania unde oriundus erat, venit vocatus ab Abbate Richardo, dum 
adhuc saecularis esset (This Geoffrey was Abbot of St. Albans from 11 19 to 
1 146), ut scholam apud Sanctum Albanum regeret. Et cum venisset, concessa 
fuit schola alio Magistro, quia non venit tempestive. Legit igitur apud 
Dunestapliam expectans scholam Sancti Albani sibi repromissam, ubi quen- 
dam ludum de Sancta Katerina (quern miracula vulgariter appellamus) fecit. 
Ad quae decoranda, petiit a sacrista Sancti Albani. ut sibi Cape Chorales 
accomodarentur, & obtinuit. Et fuit ludus ille de Sancta Katherina. Casu 
igitur nocte sequenti, accensa est domus magistri Gaufridi, & combusta est 
domus cum libris suis, & Capis memoratis. Nesciens igitur quomodo hoc 
damnum Deo & Sancto Albano restauraret, seipsum reddidit in holocaustum 



6 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

Dunstable, made (fecit) and had presented a play of St. Catherine 
of the type of drama commonly known about 1240 as "miracula" 
Though Dr. Weydig in his second chapter expresses doubt as to 
whether or not we have here to do with an actual Miracle Play, 
we nevertheless have the evidence before us for examination and 
analysis. This evidence contains three facts significant for us 
in connection with Weydig's definition: first we have a reference 
to a type of drama known as "miracula," not merely to an indi- 
vidual play; second, the saint who is honored in this dramatiza- 
tion is other than St. Nicholas or the Virgin Mary; and third, the 
play, beyond a reasonable doubt, represented not the divine 
appearance or miraculous intervention of a saint, but either the 
disputation of Catherine before the Emperor Maximinius with 
the philosophers, or her passion — or possibly included both. 18 

Thus, as a result of this examination of Dr. Weydig's evidence 
we see that the only example which concerns the Miracle Play 
as a type rather than the content of individual plays absolutely 
fails to justify his definition. That the miracles of St. Nicholas 
had much to do with fixing the name of this type of drama is 
very probably true, but that is another thing from saying that 
his miracles and those of the Virgin Mary constitute the type. 19 

The other reference which I suggested above is also well 
known. It is to the passage from William Fitz-Stephen's in- 

Deo, assumens habitum Religionis in domo Sancti Albani. Et haec fuit 
causa, quare tantum adhibuit diligentiae, ut Capas chorales in eadem, postea 
in Abbatem promotus, faceret pretiosas." 

18 For the evidence by which I reach this conclusion I refer the reader 
to my chapter, St. Catherine and her Play. 

"Subject to the same general criticism as Dr. Weydig's is the following 
definition by L. Petit de Julleville, Les My stores (1880), I, p. 107: "On 
appelait miracle, au moyen age, le recit de quelque fait surnaturel attribue 
a la Vierge ou aux Saints. Quand la narration, se transformant etait mise 
en drame, comme c'est ici le cas (he is writing concerning Rustebeuf's 
Theophiley le drame conservait le meme nom." 

Fully as arbitrary as Weydig's is Professor Wilh. Cloetta's Sonntags- 
beilage zur Vossischen Zeitnng, July 21, 1895, pp. 9-12: "Sie (die Mirakel) 
fiihren immer ein einziges Wunder vor. das von der betreffenden heiligen 
Person zur Zeit, als sie nicht mehr auf Erden wollte, verrichtet worden ist". 



DEFINITION 

troduction to the life of Thomas a Beckt listing of a brief 

survey of London (c. 1190). In this, as the reader will recall, 
he writes of the plays of London, contrasting them with those of 
ancient Rome. He states that London has in place of theatrical 
spectacles, in place of scenic plays, more sacred plays, rcpn 
tations of miracles which holy confessors have wrought, or rep- 
resentations of passions by which the constancy of martyrs has 
become renowned. Here we have as a dramatic type, saints' plays : 
the two main groups of it are, representations of miracles, and rep- 
resentations of martyrdoms. Into the second group falls the St. Cath- 
erine play, a Miracle Play. On the basis of the evidence here pre- 
sented relative to dramatic form, I propose the following defini- 
tion as already phrased by another: 21 "The miracle play is the 
dramatization of a legend setting forth the life or the martyrdom 
or the miracles of a saint." The final evidence for the establishing 
of this definition will be found in later chapters. 

20 Vita Sancti Thomae Cantauriensis Archiepiscopi et Martyris. See 
Materials for the History of Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury 
(Rolls Series, 1877), Vol. Ill, p. 9.: "Lundonia pro spectaculis theatralibus, 
pro ludis scenicis ludos habet sanctiores, repraesentationes miraculorum quae 
sancti confessores operati sunt, seu repraesentationes passionum quibus 
claruit constantia martyrium". 

a See J. M. Manly, Mod. Phil. IV (1906-1907), p. 585. A similar but 
more general wording of this definition is given by A. W. Ward, Hist. Eng. 
Dram. Lit. (1809), I, pp. 41-42: "Properly speaking, mysteries deal with Gos- 
pel events only Miracle-plays, on the other hand, are more espe- 
cially concerned with incidents derived from the legends of the Saints of the 
Church." 



CHAPTER II. 
Analysis of Traditional Theories 
The earliest Miracle Plays, according to the records, are 
those of St. Nicholas and St. Catherine. Of St. Nicholas 1 there 
are preserved eight plays in four different manuscripts. Accord- 
ing to internal and external evidence none of these plays is later 
than the middle of the twelfth century. The two accepted as the 
earliest are preserved in an eleventh century manuscript from 
Hildesheim (Prussia). 2 One of these is a dramatized version of 
the well-known legend in which St. Nicholas gave dowries to three 
sisters who were considering entering upon lives of shame to save 
their father from want. The other has as its theme the miraculous 
intervention of the saint in restoring to life three young scholars who 
had been murdered by an innkeeper at whose house they were stop- 
ping over night. An Einsiedeln 3 (Switzerland) manuscript of the 
early twelfth century contains a dramatized fragment of the latter 
part of this same legend. The part preserved opens with the 
appearance of St. Nicholas at the home of the innkeeper. In 
a Fleury (France) manuscript of the thirteenth century are four 
complete plays which have this saint as their hero. 4 The sub- 
jects of two are the same as of those just mentioned. The 
third is of a Jew who entrusted his property to an image of St. 
Nicholas, which he had left to guard his house. Later when 
he returned and found that the robbers had stolen his goods, he 

1 This does not include some later St. Nicholas plays outside the limits 
of the present study. 

3 British Museum, Additional Ms. 22414. Text with introduction and 
notes by Ernst Dummler Zeitschr. f. deut. Alt., Vol. XXXV (1891), pp. 
401-407. Further discussion by Ernst Dummler and E. Schroder, ibid., 
XXXVI (1892), pp. 238-240. See also Weydig, op. cit., pp. 53 ff. for discus- 
sion of the eight plays. 

* Einsiedeln Hs. Nr. 347. Text with introduction by P. Gall Morel, 
Anzeiger f. Kunde d. deutschen Vorzeit,Vl, Neue Folge (1859), cols. 207-210. 

* Bibliotheque d 'Orleans No. 201 (olim 178). Texts: E. de Coussemaker, 
Drames Liturgiques (1861) pp. 83-142; E. Du Meril, op. cit., pp. 254-271, 
276-284; Thomas Wright, Early Mysteries (1838), pp. 1-21. The date of the 
manuscript as indicated above is, of course, not to be understood as the date 
of the plays. 



ANALYSIS OF TRADITIONAL THEORIES 9 

threatened to beat the image, but St. Nicholas intervened and 
forced the robbers to return the property. As a sequel the Jew 
became a Christian. The fourth miracle represents how St. 
Nicholas brought back to Getron and Euphrosina their son, 
Adeodatus, who had been kidnaped by a pagan king, Marmori- 
nus. The last play of this group of eight was written by a scholar 
named Hilarius 5 and treats the samp 'heme as the third Fleury 
miracle. In this play a Barbarian takes the place of the Fleury 
Jew. With regard to the St. Catherine play, I have already stated 
that we have only a chance reference to it. 6 Its latest possible 
date is 1119, the time at which Geoffrey, its author or manager, 
became abbot of St. Albans; and it is most probably several years 
earlier. 

Waiving for the moment the unsettled question of whether or not 
this period produced other Miracle Plays than those just indicated, 
we turn to the actual question at issue. It is one of historical 
fact: What is the origin of this type of play? The question in- 
volves not a discussion of what might have happened, but of what 
did happen. We are concerned with theories only in so far as they 
serve as a starting point for investigation. 

THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION 

A great fallacy in the discussion of the origin of the Miracle Play 
is that there has been too much mere speculation based on a loose 
and dangerous argument by analogy. One of the clearest cases of 
such speculation is Richard Garnett's statement of his theory. He 
writes thus: "This (the revival of the mediaeval drama in the 
Miracle Play) must be sought in the dramatic character as- 
sumed by the services of the Church as a consequence of their 
language having become unintelligible to the bulk of the people. . . . 
"It was not that dramas were expressly composed for liturgical pur- 
poses, but that germs already present in the ritual developed into 
the dramatic representations. At last the religious drama went 

"The period of Hilarius' literary activity is probably the second quarter 
of the twelfth century. This conclusion is based on the fact that he was a 
student under Abelard while the latter taught at paraclete (c. 1125). For 
further comments *on Hilarius, see Chapter III. p. 41, and Hilarii Versus 
et Ludi (1838), pp. 34 ff. ed. Champollion-Figeac ; E. Du Meril, op. cit., 
pp. 272-276. 

6 See Chapter I, p. 5, and footnote. 



IO NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

forth from the church into the open air as an offshoot of the liturgy, 
a kindred yet independent form of service. By a further important, 
yet highly natural development, it was allowed to be expressed in 

vernacular The evolutionary process was slow, and 

is to us obscure, but on the whole it may be concluded that the 
mystery or miracle play was an accepted institution in Central 
Europe toward the end of the eleventh century." 7 Now it is not 
my purpose to discuss the drama whose origins "must be sought in 
the dramatic character assumed by the services of the Church." 
That is not the subject of my proposed study. Furthermore, the 
work has already been clearly and convincingly done. 8 But in this 
connection, the following needs to be said. Though the Miracle 
Play may show certain liturgical associations in common with the 
early religious plays, there is absolutely no evidence that the early 
liturgical play ever developed from a "germ" as "an offshoot of the 
liturgy" into the Miracle Play. Not only is there no evidence in 
favor of this hypothesis, but all the evidence is directly opposed 
to it. This we shall present in its order in due time. Further, as 
I have already shown by the testimony of William Fitz-Stephen and 
Matthew Paris, the Miracle Play as a type of drama is clearly 
distinguishable. In this respect Garnett has entirely disregarded 
any distinctions. The fallacy involved in his theory I suggested 
in my remarks preceding his statement of the case. It is summed 
up in his closing sentence : "The evolutionary process was slow 
and is to us obscure." 

The logical objection to this point of view was well put some 
years ago: "We know that literature and art and social life are 
not plants or animals, and that they have their own laws of exist- 
ence, but even if we try to keep steadily before us the fallacy residing 
in such terms as 'organism' or 'evolution' it is practically impossible 
to speak or think of any unified body of facts showing progressive 
change as men habitually spoke and thought before i860. That we 

'Richard Garnett and Edmund Gosse, English Literature, an Illustrated 
Record (1903), Vol. I, p. 221. 

8 See Carl Lange, Die lateinischen Osterfeiern (Miinchen, 1887) ; also E. 
K. Chambers, The Mediaeval Stage (1903), Vol. II, pp. 1 67; and Wilh. 
Creizenach, Geschichte des neueren Dramas (1911), Vol. I, pp. 43 ff. For a 
brief and succinct statement including all the essential features see J. M. 
Manly, Modern Philology, Vol. IV, pp. 583-584. 



ANALYSIS OF TRADITIONAL TB 

should still speak and think as if the needs of human thought could 
be met by a mere chronological record is not to be wished ; but it 
is equally undesirable that in our attempts to understand the pro- 

es of life we should accept for our own particular problem a 
formula whose only claim to attention is that it seems to solve 
another problem. That is what we have been doing, even when 
we were not conscious of it." 9 The essential fact here is that 
literature is not an organism but a product and has no power within 
itself to reproduce. A product which meets popular approval be- 
comes a fashion, and thus a new type is established. Its origin is 
the result of some new factors, of forces within the period in which 
it first makes its appearance. All this preceding is the reason that 
arguments merely on the basis of biological analogy will never ex- 
plain the origin of the Miracle Play. 

The theory proposed by Professor A. W. Ward is in some re- 
spects similar in character to the one just discussed. Thus, he 
writes with regard to the dramatic development in the twelfth cen- 
tury : "From the same period survive divers dramatic versions of 
legends concerning the popular St. Nicholas, which savor of the 
monastic literary drama, and thus bear witness to the fluidity of 
a growth of which it is easier to detach the successive steps from 
one another in accordance with a priori theory than to arrange the 
sequence in proved chronological order." 10 Just what he means 
by "monastic literary drama," and what relation he has in mind is 
shown clearly by another statement which he makes some years 
later: "While avowedly imitated in form from those of Terence 
those religious exercises (i. e. those of Hroswitha) derive their 
themes — martyrdoms and miraculous or otherwise startling conver- 
sions — from the legends of Christian saints. Thus from perhaps 
the ninth to the twelfth centuries, Germany and France, and through 
the latter by means of the Norman conquest, England became ac- 
quainted with what may be called the literary monastic drama. It 
was, no doubt, performed by the children under the care of monks 
or nuns or by the religious themselves : an exhibition of the former 
kind was the play of St. Catherine acted at Dunstable about the year 
i no in copes." 11 

'J. M. Manly, loc. cit., p. 580. 

10 A. W. Ward, Hist. Eng. Dram. Lit. (1899), Vol. I, p. 37. 

11 Encyclopaedia Britannica, eleventh edition (1911), Vol. VIII, p. 417. 



12 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

The theory here summarized presupposes two facts for which 
any conclusive evidence is lacking: that Hroswitha's plays were 
acted, and that they or successors to them passed through Germany 
and France to England. Professor Manly in a review of Joseph 
Tunison's Dramatic Traditions in the Dark Ages summarizes clear- 
ly the present state of opinion with regard to the first point and 
adds some pertinent comments relative to her dramatic art. He 
writes : "It is surely misleading to say (p. 167) that 'competent 
critics agree that her dramas could be acted as they were written.' 
Some have contended that they could. That Sapientia and Cali- 
machus could, is hard to believe. The implication of page 167 is that 
Hroswitha's dramatic technique was excellent. Her 'correctness' 
consists, in fact, only in not interpolating such expressions as 'inquit' 
in the dialogue. She follows her legends almost slavishly and neg- 
lects most obvious opportunities for spectacular and dramatic 
effects ; see her treatment of the comic situation in Dulcitius sc. IV, 
and compare in Gallicanus, I, ix, with I, xii, 7. and in Calimachus 
sc. vii with the report in ix, 13. " 12 Then, too, Hroswitha tells us 
herself that she wrote her plays to be read. 13 With regard to the 
second point, not only is there no indication of Hroswitha's influ- 
ence 14 on the miracle plays, but positive evidence reveals an entirely 
different origin and development. 

12 See American Historical Review, XIII (1907-1908) p. 125. Cf. P. S. 
Allen, The Mediaeval Mimus, Mod. Phil. VIII (i9io),p. 25; "Roswitha's so- 
called dramas are of course nothing but legends in crude dialogue-form," 
and ff. 

18 Hrotsvithae Opera, recensuit et emendavit Paulus de Winterfeld 
(Berlin. [1902], p. 106) Preface to plays: "Plures inveniuntur catholici, cujus 
nos penitus expurgare nequimus facti, qui pro cultioris facundia sermonis 
gentilium vanitatum librorum utilitati praeferunt sacrarum scripturarum. Sunt 
etiam alii, sacris inhaerentes paginis, qui licet alia gentilium spernant, 
Terentii tamen fingmenta frequentius lectitant, et, dum duicedine sermonis 
delectantur, nefandarum notitia rerum maculantur. Unde ego, Clamor Val- 
idus Gandeshemensis, non recusavi ilium imitari dictando, dum alii colunt 
legendo quo eodem dictationis genere, quo turpia lascivarum incesta femin- 
arum recitabantur, laudabilis sacrarum castimonia virginum juxta mei facul- 
tatem ingenioli celebraretur". 

" As far as evidence is concerned one must regard Hroswitha's imitation 
of Terence as sporadic; she set no literary fashion. Her work was essenti- 
ally that of a recluse. However, in employing Latin legends of saints, as 
she did, she was in harmony with the prevailing literary fashion of her 
period (ca. 940-1002). Vide infra, chap, iii, p. 34. 



ANALYSIS OF TRADITIONAL THEOl 13 

THE FKBLi ED EPISTLE THEORY 

Professor Suchier li summarizes a theory which has had some 
currency among students of the drama. The following is a brief 
statement of it : The liturgical play, banished from the church be- 
cause of secular or comic elements, found a halting place in the 
churchyard and the monastery. In the latter of these two places 
plays were performed in honor of school saints. An important im- 
pulse to this readjustment of the dramatic office, making it broader 
so as to include saints' material and saints' feasts as well as Biblical 
material and such liturgical feasts as Christmas and Easter, was 
the vernacular farced epistle. As an illustration of its influence 
take the vernacular refrains in Hilarius' two plays : Lazarus and 
Nicholas. 

An analysis of this shows, as in the case of Garnett's theory, 
that there is a failure to distinguish between the earliest religious 
plays, which had their inspiration essentially within the liturgy, 
and Miracle Plays, which originated some two hundred years later 
under widely different circumstances and influences. Certain com- 
mon liturgical associations should not cause us to confuse two 
distinct types. Suchier does indeed suggest a different origin, but 

18 See H. Suchier und Adolph Birsch-Hirschfeld, Geschichte der Frans- 
osischen Litteratur von altesten Zeiten, etc. (1900), p. 273: "Das Eindringen 

weltlicher oder komischer Elemente, gab schon im 12. Jahr- 

hundert Anlass, die Spiele aus der Kirche zu verbannen ; doch verlegte man 
sie zunachst auf den Platz neben der Kirche. Seit dem Anfang des 12. 
Tahrhunderts werden auch in den Klosterschulen Auffuhrungen veranstaltet, 
besonders zu Ehren der Katharina, der Schutzpatronin der Gelehrsamkeit, 

und des Nicholaus des Schutzpatrons der Schuler 

"Die lateinische Sprache machte das Repertoire des Offiziums zu einem 
internationalen. Zunachst einfach an die Bibel angelehnt und auf die 
Hauptfeste beschrankt, dann auch auf Feste der Lokalheiligen bezogen, 
wurde das Offizium durch neue Arrangements an Ort, Zeit, und Publicum 
angepasst und allmahlich erweitert — Ein wichtiger Anstoss zur Umgestalt- 
ung scheint von der sogenannten epitre farcie ausgegangen zu sein. Das 
war ein Gesang in der Volkssprache, der durch die Vorlesung der Perikope 
stiikweise unterbrochen wurde. Uns sind mehrere soldier cpitrcs farcies 
in franzosicher and provenzalischer Sprache erhalten ; den altesten auf 
Stephanus, glaubt man in den Anfang des 12. Tahrhunderts setzen zu diir- 
fen. Die Einmischung franzosicher Stellen, die auch den des lateinischen 
unkundingen Teil Publikums zu seinem Rechte kommen Hess, empfahl sich 



14 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

he makes it refer to a new feature of the early religious play, and 
not to the creation of a new type. The theory, as the reader will 
observe, is that the vernacular farced epistle is really the origin of 
the Miracle Play. Since I shall have something to say later with 
regard to school saints, I pass them for the present. Relative to 
this theory three pertinent questions are : What is the farced 
epistle 16 as the term is here employed ? What is its purpose ? 
What does the evidence show as to its relation to the Miracle Play? 
The farced epistle, in the sense here employed is a vernacular 
interpolation in the passage from the legends of a saint which was 
read on that particular saint's day. Its purpose was to interpret 
in the language of the congregation the content of the Latin lection 
— with some additional popular exposition of it. 17 To make this 
clear, take an extract from the farced epistle which Suchier men- 
tions, the one for the feast of St. Stephen. It opens thus: 

Seignors, oiez communement: 
car entendre poez brefment 
la passion et le torment 
de seint Esteinvre apertement. 

Lectio Actuum Apostolorum 
Li Apostre ceste lecon 
firent, par bone ententiun, 
de sein Esteinvre, le baron. 

In die bus Hits, 
Enpres le jur que Deus 
fu nexce por nos, 
fu enterdix posez, 
fu seint Esteinvre lapidez. 

auch fur das Offizium, und so uns von Hilarius, dem Zuhorer des Abailard 

drei lateinische Schauspiele erhalten ('Daniel', 'Lazarus', 'Niko- 

laus',), von denen die beiden letzteren lyrische Gesange, man mochte sagen 
Arien, einschliessen, deren 2-4 Strophen mit franzosichen Refrains versehen 
sind." E. Du Meril, op. cit., p. 74 note 2 suggests a similar influence : "Nous 
serions tente aussi d'en (epitre farcie) rapporter l'origine a des intentions 
dramatiques, et de voir une veritable liaison entre la farciture des epitres et 
les farces." 

"Latin farcire, to stuff. 

m Cf. Suchier, op. cit., "Das war ein Gesang, etc." 



ANALYSIS OF TRADITIONAL THEOM I 5 

Stephanits, plenus gratia ct fortudinc, facicbat prodigia et signa 
magna in popitlo. 16 

Seint Esteinvres pleins de bonte 
et de la grace damne De(u), 
unc n'entendi a faussete; 
einz a le peuple doctrine, 
et par miracles demonstre 
coment il vienge a sauvete. 19 

And thus the entire story of Stephen's martyrdom as recorded in 
the Acts of Apostles is given in this manner, with popular exposi- 
tion. That this is a highly dramatic incident every one will admit, 
but it is not drama. Furthermore, we have neither drama nor any 
intermediate stages leading to it in this or any other vernacular 
farced epistles preserved. In the case of St. Nicholas, the saint 
whose plays are earliest, and therefore establish the type, we have 
no vernacular farced epistles. But even if we had, the Hildesheim 
plays, all of which are in Latin, show no trace of this influence. 20 
But let us turn to the case cited by Suchier, the two plays by 
Hilarius. The only relation that they show to the farced epistle is 
that they have vernacular portions. By way of illustration and 
comparison, take an extract typical of this feature in both plays, 
one from St. Nicholas. It is after the robbers at the command of 
St. Nicholas have returned to the barbarian the stolen money. He 
approaches the image and says : 

Suplex ad te venio, 

Nicholax ; 
Nam per te recipio 

Tut icei que tu gardas. 

"Acts of Apostles, Chap. VI, v. 8. 

19 E. du Meril, op. cit., pp. 410-411. 

30 Clemens Blume's masterly work on tropes to epistles (AnaUcta Hym- 
nica [Leipzig, 1906], Vol. XLIX. pp. 167 ft.), to which Professor Karl Young 
has kindly called my attention, shows that though the vernacular tropes can 
hardly be dated back of the thirteenth century, there are tropes entirely in 
Latin as early as the eleventh century. However, Suchier's theory concerns 
itself entirely with the vernacular tropes. And further, there is no evidence 
that there is any essential relation between the Latin tropes and the Miracle 
Play in its origin. 



l6 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

Sum profectus peregre, 

Nicholax; 
Sed recepi integre 
Tut ice que tu gardas. 

Mens mea convaluit, 

Nicholax; 
Nichil enim defuit 
De tut cei que tu gardas. 21 

Now even a hasty reading of this passage shows that the ver- 
nacular element here bears no logical relation to that in the passage 
quoted from the farced epistle. It is an integral part of the play — 
necessary to complete the meaning of the stanzas — and this exposi- 
tion presents Suchier's 22 idea of the purpose of the vernacular inter- 
polation. It is evident that its real purpose here is entirely 
aesthetic. It is a refrain, adding to the lyric quality of the verse. 

Exactly the same device with exactly the same end in view is 
employed again by Hilarius in two of his non-dramatic poems. 
Ad Petrum Abaelardtim 23 and De Papa Sclwlastico. 2 * I take three 
stanzas from the first for illustration. The poem as a whole is an 
appeal to Abelard to admit to his classes again Hilarius 25 and a 
number of his companions, dismissed presumably because of some 
students' prank reported to him by his servant. The three stanzas 
quoted are an invective against this servant. 

"Lingua servi, nostrum discidium, 
In nos Petri commovit odium. 
Quae meretur ultorem gladium, 
Quia nostrum extinxit studium! 
Tort a vers nos li mestre. 
"Detestandus est ille rusticus, 
Per quern cessat a schola clericus : 
Gravis dolor ! quod quidam puplicus 

21 Hilarii Versus et Ludi, p. 38; Du Meril, op. cit., p. 275. 
^Suchier, op cit., "Die Einmischung versehen sind." 

23 Hilar ii Versus et Ludi, pp. 14-16. 

24 Ibid., pp. 41-42. 

25 Hilarii, op. cit, pp. 14-15. See also Hist. Lift, de la France, Vol. XII. 
p. 252. 



u.vsis OF TRADI1 IONAL 1 mi OS 17 

Id effecit tit cesset logicus! 

Tort a vers nos li mestre. 
"Est dolendum quod lingua servuli, 
Magni nobis causa periculi, 
Susurravit in aurem creduli, 
Per quod ejus cessant diseipuli. 

Tort a vers nos li mestre." 

Finally, a similar use of vernacular refrain in the Daniel of 
Beauvias,-' 6 a contemporary school play, and the Sponsus, 21 a con- 
temporary liturgical play, gives some further support to the theory 
that this was a passing fashion, employed for lyric effect. At any 
rate, one thing is certain : this vernacular element in our drama has 
no genetic relation to the same feature in the farced epistle. And 
there is certainly no warrant for the contention that the vernacular 
farced epistle influenced the origin and development of the Miracle 
Play. 

THE SCHOOL SAINTS* THEORY. 

Another theory which has been suggested by several historians 
of the drama is that in its origin the Miracle Play is a dramatic 
representation in honor of the patron saints of scholars : Nicholas 
and Catherine. This is expressed definitely by Dr. Weydig M in his 
dissertation. In its essence his theory is as follows. Latin stories 
of the lives of saints were early employed as school exercises. 
Miracles of these saints, already in prose dialogue, may often have 
been changed into little poems and recited at a festivity. Then 

M E. de Coussemaker, op. cit., pp. 49 ft. 

27 Ibid., pp. 1 ff. ; E. Du Meril, op. cit., pp. 233 ff. 

" 8 1 add Dr. Weydig's statement entire because it represents current opin- 
ion. Of course due allowance must be made for personal views in detail 
with which others holding the theory would not agree. Weydig, op. cit., pp. 
44-46: "In den Schulen ist nun auch der Keim zum Xikolausspiel und damit 
zum Mirakelspiel iiberhaupt zu suchen. Die Bedingungen dafiir waren hier 
am gunstigsten. Denn zuniichst war den Schiilern eine genaue Kenntnis des 
Stoffes eigen, die sie teils aus lateinischen Erzahlungen, teils aus miindlichen 
Uberlieferen fur Ubungen der Schiiler verwendet, wic das iiblich war. Man 
konnte an ihnen alles fur die damalige Zeit Wichtige lernen : Latein, \ 
kunst, Religion, und man blieb dabei auf anschaulichem, realen Gebiete. So 
mogen die meist schon in ihrer Prosaform dialogisierten Wunder oft in 



l8 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

these dialogues, pressed beyond the boundaries, became verse and 
primitive drama. Thus we should have the scholars presenting — 
at first for themselves only — on the feast day of their patron, St. 
Nicholas, a little play concerning one of his miracles, the joint com- 
position of two monks, one writing the text, the other, the music. 
All this could have happened, but the question is, did it? Shall 

kleine Gedichte verwandelt and dann bei Festlichkeit rezitiert worden sein, 
wie auch aus einer Stelle bei Wace, La Vie de Saint Nicholas v. 226 ff., her- 
vorzugehen scheint (Delius S. 8) : 

Por ceo que as clers fist tiel honor 

Font li clerc feste a icel jor, 

De bien lirre, de bien chantier 

E des miracles recitier. 
Die dialogische Form drangte sich oft schon aus der Quelle herein. So 
entstand einer jener kleinen Gedicht-Dialoge, wie sie in den beiden Hildes- 
heimer Spielen, von denen gleich zu sprechen ist, erhalten sind, und in welcher 
Form auch die erste religiose, dramatische Komposition Englands iiberliefert 
ist, betitelt The Harrowing of Hell.' Ausserdem waren Schulern der Dialog 
und das Spiel nicht unbekannt, denn sie wirkten ja meist bei der Auffuhrung 
der Spiele zu Weihnachten und Ostern mit. Warum hatten sie also, zunachst 
nur fur sich, am Festtage ihres Schutzheiligen nicht auch ihm zu Ehren ein 
kleines Spiel iiber eins seiner Wunder auffuhren sollen? Irgend ein junger 
Monch oder Kleriker verfasste den wenig umfangreichen Text, ein anderer 
vielleicht ersann die Musik dazu, die sehr einfach war." For a more gen- 
eral statement of the theory see Creizenach, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 97 : "Mit einem 
hohen Grade von Wahrscheinlichkeit diirfen wir aber solche Dramen (Klos- 
terauffiirungen) als Schuldramen aussprechen, in welchen ein Heiliger 
verherrlicht wird, der als Patron des Schuhvesens gait. Gewiss ist es kein 
Zufall, dass Gottfried in Dunstaple die heilige Katharina, die Patronin der 
Gelehrten, zur Heldin seines Schauspiels erkor. Der Lieblingspatron der 
Schiiler war aber der kinderfreundliche Nickolaus, dessen Gestalt uns in 
mehreren Spielen ehrfurchtgebietend, dabei mit einem leisen Schimmer von 
Humor entgegentritt." See also Creizenach in The Cambridge History of 
Eng. Lit. Vol. V, p. 42. 

Although Chambers, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 57-59 is very guarded in his 
statements concerning the origin of the group including the St. Nicholas 
dramas, suggesting that they may have been composed on the model of the 
Easter and Christmas plays, he does connect them with scholastic influences 
without committing himself to any definite theory (p. 59) : "Of Latin plays 
of St. Nicholas, indeed quite a little group exists; and the great scholastic 
feast evidently afforded an occasion, less only than Easter and Christmas, 
for dramatic performances." However, this statement is entirely general 
and noncommittal, and I call attention to it here not to class Chambers with 
the Weydig group, but merely to indicate his related point of view. 



analysis OF TRADITIONAL TH1 19 

we regard this type as the result of an unconscious evolution within 
the schoolroom, and the happy inspiration -" of a teacher who wished 
to provide a new entertainment for his schoolboys? My analysis of 
this theory may well be introduced by the query : What evidence is 
there in favor of it? In the first place, as answer, though I grant 
it probable that teachers employed for school exercises just such 
saints' legends as we find dramatized, there is in the passage quoted 
at length (see footnote 2 ") no conclusive evidence which warrants 
such a statement as: "Sicher haben die Lehrer solche Erzahlungen 
fur Ubungen der Schuler verwendet." 30 Wahrscheinlich or vielleicht, 
and not sicher is the fitting adverb here. Then as an instance of 
prose legends already in dialogue Dr. Weydig gives in a footnote, 
citation to Legenda Aurea, which contains entire narratives in 
dialogue. When we recall that the Legenda Aurea was written 
almost two hundred years after our first Miracle Plays, we shall 
hardly regard the form which Jacobus de Voragine, its compiler, 
employed in some of its stories as proving anything for our case. 
Further, the lines quoted from Wace to the effect that scholars 
"read, sing, and recite" the miracles of St. Nicholas on his feast 
day because he saved three of their companions, 31 were written 
probably half a century after the Miracle Play was created. 32 So, 
though the time that elapsed from the Hildesheim dramas to Wace 
is not so great as between them and the Legenda Aurea, the 
fallacy in both cases is the same. And the theory of joint com- 
position which Dr. Weydig presents is speculation justifiable only 
on the basis of some unquestioned evidence. 

But there is one further point that demands our attention. I 
refer to Dr. Weydig's statement that in their origin the plays 
were performed in honor of St. Nicholas, the "Schutzheiligen" of 
scholars. And here I call in question what has heretofore been 

28 Of course the Miracle Play in its origin was the happy inspiration of 
some individual. The only question here is as to whether the view presented 
gives the significance and relations of the inspiration. 

30 In a footnote to this assertion Weydig cites Grober (Grundriss II. i, p. 
395) as of the opinion that some little poems concerning St. Martin were 
employed for school exercises. 

81 Vide supra, footnote : Weydig 44-46. 

82 Concerning Wace (b. ca. 1100, d. ca. 1 174) see Louis N. Delmare, 
Catholic Encyclopaedia Vol. XV (1912), p. 521. 



20 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

regarded as an absolute fact, viz., that St. Nicholas and St. 
Catherine were specialized as saints of scholars previous to the 
origin of the Miracle Play. 33 That they were patrons of scholars 
during the Middle Ages, and that their plays were performed in 
the schools there is no question. The question is, does the evidence 
show that they were specialized as patrons of the scholars at the 
time of the origin of the Miracle Plays f The statement so often 
cited in support of this theory is the well-known one from 
Bulaeus' History of the University of Paris. Under the date 
1087, the year of the translation of the relics of St. Nicholas from 
Myra, Asia Minor to Bari, Italy, Bulaeus writes: "Ille (Nicholas) 
autem ab omni aevo scholarium Patronus habitus & praesertim 
Iunorium qui humaniarum litterarum rudimentis & Grammaticae 
operam dant, ut S. Catharina philosophorum." 34 St. Nicholas and 
St. Catherine patrons of scholars and philosophers ab omni aevo! 
This last phrase is certainly inclusive enough. But a few facts 
must be taken into consideration before we accept Bulaeus as 
authority. We must remember, first, that he wrote in the latter 
half of the seventeenth century, several hundred years after the 
time that concerns us, and that he cites no evidence in support 
of his sweeping assertion. In this connection, an analysis of an- 
other passage from Bulaeus, quoted by almost every historian of 
the drama, is of greatest importance here in that it gives us an 
insight into his method of reaching conclusions. I refer to his 
comments regarding the play of St. Catherine. Here is a typical 
statement from one of the older histories of the English Drama: 35 
"According to Bulaeus, this play of St. Katherine was not by any 
means a novelty non novo quidem instituto sed consuetudinc 
magistrorum et scholarnm." Let us look to the context of this as- 
sertion of Bulaeus. Under the date 1 146, the year of the death 

33 Though Weydig does not include St. Catherine in the passage quoted, 
since he regards her as unessential to his study of the Miracle Play, the 
following from his remarks concerning the St. Catherine play will show. I 
believe, that I am not misrepresenting him by including her in the argument 
(op. cit., p. 13) ; "Bemerkenswert ist, dass dieses Drama des Gottfried die 
Heilige Katharina, die Patronin der Gelehrten, zur Heldin hatte." 

84 C. E. Bulaeus, Historia Universitatis Parisiensis, (six vols. 1665- 1673). 
Vol. I, p. 480. 

"J. P. Collier, English Dramatic Poetry (1879), Vol. I, p. 14. 



ANALYSIS OF TRADITIONAL THEOB 21 

of Geoffrey, the author of the St. Catherine play, he writes: "1146. 
Modem anno obierunt in Anglia plurimi viri insignes olim hm 
Academiae 36 magistri : inter alios vero Gaufridus Cenomanensis, vir 
in scholarum magisterio magni nominis hocce vero tempore Abbas 
S. Albani ; qui scilicet e Cenomania ubi docebat evocatus in Angliam 
a Richardo Abbate S. Albani ut Monasterii Scholas regeret, postea 
factus est ipse Abbas an. 11 19. Abbatiamque rexit usque ad obitum. 
Ille autem in praedicto monasterio, aut certe in scholiis ejusdem 
S. Katharinae ludum seu miracula per Discipulos repraesentavit ; 
non novo quide instituto, sed de consuetudine Magistrorum & Schol- 
arum: qua de re sic Mathaeus Parisiensis, seu quiuis alius scriptor 
is vitis 23. Abbatum S. Albani, ubi de Gaufrido Abbate. (Here 
follows the passage from Matthew Paris already quoted. 37 Vide 
supra footnote 17, page 5, chapter I) Ex his patet inter exercitationes 
iuventutis scholasticae fuisse iam turn Ludos, seu Comoedias & 
Tragoedias, quemadmodum usurpari ubique passim hodie videmus 
in colloquiis & Scholis Artistarum : quae consuetudo in Academia 
quoque Parisiensi vetustissima est, ut libro de Patronis 4. Nationum 
a nobis edito an. 1662 docuimus." 

This is Bulaeus complete. From the solitary reference of Mat- 
thew Paris' he concludes that Miracle Plays were a well-established 
custom among teachers and scholars when Geoffrey was teaching 
at Dunstable : "Non novo quidem instituto sed de consuetudine 
magistrorum et scholarum." Surely not a convincing method. The 
reader will observe that it is not here a question of whether they 
were a well-established custom, but of w T hether he advances any 
conclusive evidence to show that they were. 

And if we accept Rashdall's 38 estimate of Bulaeus' entire work 
on the history of the University of Paris, we must believe that the 
case cited is not an unusual one. He writes : "Caesar Egassius 

Bulaeus (du Boulay) in his six enormous folio volumes 

gathered together an immense mass of material for his history, but 
his own view of its origin is as completely mythical as anything in 

30 The University of Paris. 

"Bulaeus, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 225-226. 

38 Hastings Rashdall, Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages (1895). 
See bibliographical note to Vol. I, p. 271. 



22 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

the first decade of Livy; 38a while his inaccuracies and inconsistencies 
are only equalled by his tedious prolixity. He was perhaps the 
stupidest man that ever wrote a valuable book." So much for 
Rashdall. At all events, if we apply a critical test to Bulaeus, 
we must cease to quote him as authority in matters relative to the 
drama or patron saints of scholars. 

Doubtless the scholars' legend has occurred to some as evidence 
in favor of regarding St. Nicholas as a patron of scholars before 
the origin of the Miracle Play. But its earliest appearance seems 
to have been in the Hildesheim drama. And apparently the first 
life of St. Nicholas 39 that contains it is by Wace, written, as I 
have already stated, some forty or fifty years after the probable 
date of the Hildesheim Play. Further, Wace distinctly states that 
this miracle is the cause of his being honored by students : 

'Tor ceo que as clers fist tiel honor 
Font li clerc feste a icel jor." 

Hence, though we may regard the drama as marking the ap- 
proximate time at which St. Nicholas became a patron of scholars, 
we should avoid forming the conclusion on the basis of the scholars' 
legend 40 that the Miracle Play originated in honor of him or of 
other saints as patrons of scholars; for, as we shall see later, the 
origin of the Miracle Play constitutes a problem distinct from it. 
We should bear in mind, also, in this connection, that three of the 
four themes dramatized concerning St. Nicholas have nothing to do 
with his relation to scholars. Finally, Monument a Germaniae 

38a This certainly does not speak well for the "vetustissima consuetudo" 
regarding the plays at the University of Paris as far as our question of 
origins is concerned. 

39 For concise summary of incidents contained in early lives see appendix 
to Kurt K. Rud. Bohnstedt's La Vie Saint Nicholas, altfr. Gedicht (Diss. 
Erlangen, 1897), pp. 34-44; and especially p. 38 with reference to the scholars' 
legend. For a life of St. Nicholas (written probably between 965 and 989) 
not mentioned by Bohnstedt see Anal. Bolland., Vol. II. (1883), PP- I43-I5L 
This does not include the scholars' legend. The earliest hymn which I have 
found that includes it is of the twelfth century (see Analecta Hymnica, 
XXI [1895], P- 85). 

40 For my suggested theory concerning the origin of the scholars' legend 
vide infra, chap, iv, p. 66, footnote. 



-IS OF TRADITIONAL THEOK 2.3 

Historic: rum, with its numerous early referer. 

St. Nicholas and its few to St. Catherine, contains none to them 

as patrons of scholars. Thus the theory- regarding St. Nicholas 

and St. Catherine as specialized saints of scholars previous to the 

origin of the Miracle Play, when it is beaten into the clear, stands 

defensek 

But with regard to Dr. Weydig' s theory of origi: -hall 

be able to show, I think, in what follows that these plays in relation 
to their period have a far greater significance than one finds in con- 
sidering them merely as a casual holiday pastime for schoolboys. 
Dr. Weydig himself suggests the right method of arriving at the 
correct solution of this problem, though he utterly ignores it in his 
dissertation. In the opening sentence of his first chapter he ; 
that in forming the definition of Miracle Play we have gone back 
too little to the point of view of the times out of which it ar 
This is exactly the difficulty. Now the method by which we may 
approximate the desired point of view demands the following pro- 
cedure : 

(i) A survey of the times in which the Miracle Play 
originated, to discover what influences help to explain its origin. 

(2) A careful examination of contemporary' documents for 
the purpose of discovering and interpreting new material and mak- 
ing, where necessary, fresh interpretation of material already 
employed. 

An analysis of the relation between the dramas already ac- 
cepted as Miracle Plays and some of the other contemporary 
dramatic representations. 

a By early I mean the period reaching to the first quarter of the twelfth 
century- 

42 Weydig, op. cit., p. 7: "Bei der Bestimmung des Mirakelspiels ist man 
meines Erachtens zu wenig auf die Anschauung der Zeiten zuruckgegangen, 
aus denen es stammt. "The opening sentence of chapter two read- 
"Bei der Zusammenstellung des Materials fur diese Cbersicht war zunachst 
die ganze Literatur des mittelalterlichen Theaters durchzusehen, besonders 
die des 15. Jahrhunderts." The closing wc: 

Jahrhunderts." give us exactly his point of view and the clue to his failure. 
His eyes are on the fifteenth century, when the mi>a<:/«\r Dame are 

the important feature, and not on the eleventh century, when the Miracle 
Play had its origin. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Mediaeval Point of View 

prefatory 

It is generally recognized that the reproduction of mediaeval 
life presented in literature during the eighteenth and nineteenth 
centuries by such romanticists as Scott and the Pre-Raphaelites is 
false. For our purpose, also, the point of view presented by such 
mediaeval productions as the Chanson de Roland, the Roman de la 
Rose, and the Chronicles of Villehardouin, Joinville and Froissart 
is misleading; for they represent primarily the idealized and ar- 
tificial aspects of the periods in which they were written. In this 
problem of dramatic origins the important factor for us is the 
every day life of the people of the Middle Ages. Here, at the 
beginning of this chapter on the mediaeval point of view, two sig- 
nificant facts should be emphasized : first, the people of the Middle 
Ages, in their ways of thinking, were confused, and were hindered 
from clear perceptions by defects which were a part of their social 
order; and second, they were essentially practical, their motives 
were primarily utilitarian. 

At the close of the last chapter, I stated that the Miracle Play 
in its beginnings had an essential relation to its period, which Dr. 
Weydig fails entirely to comprehend in his theory of a casual 
origin for it. It is the purpose of this chapter and the following 
ones to show that our type of drama really has that essential rela- 
tion already suggested, and that the influences of which it is the 
logical result are primarily those of the eleventh century. The 
following is a brief statement of my plan of work: 

i. First, I shall show relative to the mediaeval point of view: 
( i ) that the saints sustained a vital relation to the people and 
that the honoring of them was adapted to the spirit of the times ; 
(2) that the significance of the mediaeval monastery consisted in 
its corporate entity; and (3) that the age was one of unecclesiasti- 
cal influences. 

2. Further, I shall show, on the basis of evidence relating to 
St. Nicholas, that his miracle plays are not fortuitous, but in form 
and spirit bear an essential relation to the features just mentioned. 



THE MEDIAEVAL I'ol.vi OF VIEW 25 

3. Thou, 1 shall show, relative to the type, that other con- 
temporary Miracle Plays not yet recognized as such, support the 
evidence presented in the case of the St. Nicholas plays. 

4. Finally, 1 shall show, in connection with my study of St. 
lerine and her play, that the evidence presented there harmonizes 

with that previously given. 

In the present chapter 1 shall treat only the first of the main 
divisions just indicated. 

THi: CULT OF THE SAINTS. 

The first question in order is, exactly what was the relation of 
the cult of the saints to the people in mediaeval times? As a pre- 
face to a direct answer, a historical resume 1 of the cult is essential. 
Of course, in its origin it has a vital connection with the Christian 
religion ; but during the first two centuries after Christ there was 
no idea of the cult : all worship was to the glory of the Saviour : a 
celebration of his miracles and an extolling of his promises. The 
beginnings of the cult of the saints are to be sought in the cult of 
the martyrs. To possess the crown of martyrdom was for this 
epoch of faith the desire of the most simple and enthusiastic of men. 
They wished to live again in Christ. And the wishes of large 
numbers were gratified through the persecutions of the early 
emperors. The martyrdom of these heroes made a profound im- 
pression upon the faithful ; and they could not forget them. More- 
over, the leaders proposed them for models. Soon the faithful each 
year celebrated the anniversaries of martyrs and rejoiced in their 
happy birth in Christ. No churches were yet raised to them on or 
near their tombs, which the faithful visited only on the day of 
the anniversary. That represents a later development. But the 
cult was born; the Christian people prayed for the martyrs and 
bore them oblations for the safety of their souls. - 

1 In the historical resume which follows I am largely indebted to A. 
Marignan's valuable study, Le Calte des Saints sous les Merovitigicns (In 
Etudes sur la civilisation Francaise, Tome Deuxieme, Paris, 1899), Le Saint, 
pp. 1-31. See also Dr. Holentin Thalhofer, Handbuch dcr Katholischcn 
Liturgik, zweite Auflage (Freiburg, 1912), Vol. 1, pp. 693-700; Dr. K. A. H. 
Kellner, Heortologic (Freiburg, 1906), pp. 151 ff- ; J- Baudot, Lc Martyrologe 
(Paris, 1911), pp. 1-12. 

" Marignan, op. cit., p. 7 ("Les Calendiers, a partir du quatrieme siecle, 
indiquent avec soin la fete du martyr et le nom du cimetiere ou il repose") 
and Kellner, op. cit., pp. 152-154 give evidence relative to the activity of popes 
and bishops in this respect during the third century. 



26 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

Then with the popular movement into the church during the third 
century the cult increased and the bishops counseled the believers to 
note exactly the anniversary of martyrs. Calendars were drawn 
up to keep a record of those who died in the faith. Each large 
community preserved such a calendar of martyrs. 3 The next step 
was the transformation of the Christian religion. The new con- 
verts came to regard these martyrs as divine intercessors for them 
before God and Christ. In its turn arose the conception that 
martyrdom gave to the one who endured it a supernatural virtue. 
After that, everything which the martyr had touched was collected 
with care and became a precious talisman for the faithful. Thus 
came into existence the cult of the relics. 

It was at this period that the doctrine of Christ penetrated more 
and more into the Occident, and that evangelization progressed 
rapidly but superficially. It was necessary that the converts find 
in the Christian sanctuary that which paganism had given them : 
protection from the destructive forces in nature and the support 
of the Divinity in their times of trouble. The popular conception of 
the martyrs gave these converts the assurance of such divine^ inter- 
mediators as they had found in their gods. The crowds flocked 
to the suburban cemeteries of Rome to celebrate the anniversaries 
of Christian heroes at their tombs and to implore their aid. So 
great did these crowds become that churches were erected beside 
the cemeteries to accommodate them. "In the liturgies, prayers 
for the saints were now displaced by invocations for their inter- 
cessions. In this the people found a compensation for the loss of 
hero, genius and manes worship." 4 

But the cult of martyrs is only the first step toward the cult 
of the saints. In the fourth century, with the triumph of the 
Church, martyrdom became rare. Soon there were added to the 
cult ascetic monks, who passed their lives in continued internal 
struggle. These came to be known through the ascetic literature 
of the fourth century. After this there came to be included as 

8 Kellner, op. cit., p. 153 : "Jede grossere Gemeinde, vorab die Patriarchal- 
kirchen, erhielten ihren Heiligenkalendar, der sich im Laufe der Zeit mehr 
und mehr mit Namen fiillte." 

4 Professor J. H. Kurtz, Church History (Eng. tr. by Rev. John Mac- 
pherson [1888]), Vol. I, p. 361. 



THE MEDIAEVAL POINT OF VI 

saints, bishops of exemplary life — men who had rendered them- 
selves dear to the people by their almsgiving and other acts of 
helpfulness. 8 Miracles proved their supernatural power. Thus all 
these — martyrs, ascetics, and holy confessors — came early to form 
the cult of the saints. And by the Merovingian epoch there was 
a fixed popular conception concerning them. At the celestial court 
they surrounded the thrones of God and Christ, discussing before 
them the demands of mortals and pleading their cause. They spoke 
without ceasing in favor of the inhabitants where their cult was 
honored and prayed God to spare the faithful who addressed 
prayers and presented gifts to them. It was the saints who watched 
over men, guided and counseled them. Above all the saint was 
a protector of the individual or community that honored him. 
During this early period the cult of the saint was entirely local. 
Relics were taken by worshippers, but the saint's power was pri- 
marily where his body reposed. 

In the West these relics were at first any objects which touched 
the tomb of the saint. These thus acquired the power of operating 
the same miracles as were performed each day at the saint's tomb. 
According to Marignan, 7 portions of the body were rarely taken 
as relics in the West before the close of the Merovingian epoch, 
for there the idea of bodily resurrection was still too strong to admit 
of such violation. A church decree of the latter eighth century 
may have had something to do with changing this attitude : "The 
seventh general council of Nicea (787) forbade the consecration 

"Kellner, op. cit., p. 154: "Die offizielle Heiligenverehrung beschrankte 
sich anfangs denn audi auf die Martyrer. Das erste Beispiel der offentlichen 
Verehrung von Heiligen, die nicht Martyrer waren, sind Papst Silvester 
und Martin von Tours, indem ihnen zu Ehren unter Papst Symmachus urn 
500 in Rom eine Kirche erbaut und auf ihren Namen geweiht wurde, die 
basilica Silvestri et Martini." 

6 In the general mediaeval cult were included also apostles, virgins, 
angels, and the Mother of God. 

7 Marignan, op. cit., pp. 215-216: "Nul, qu'il fut, n'aurait ose soustraire un 
membre, une partie du corps du saint, et Ton s'explique l'etonnement du 
clerge romain en presence des demandes de restes des Apotres qui leur 
etaient adressees par les empereurs, il ne pouvait comprendre cette coutume 
sacrilege. (Cf. Gregoire le Grand, Epistolo Constantinae Augustae, III, Epis- 
tol. XXX : 'Cognoscat autem tranquilUssima domina, quia Romanis cott- 
suetudo non est, quando sanctorum reliquias datit, ut quidquam tangere 



28 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

of churches in which relics 8 were not present, under pain of ex- 
communication. " However that may be, we know that by the be- 
ginning of the ninth century the "exportation of bodies of martyrs 
from Rome had assumed the dimensions of a regular commerce/' 9 
It was during this period that churches and monasteries in the West 
began to translate bodies of martyrs and confessors to attract the 
faithful and thus increase their offerings. 

The translation of St. Fides 10 (Foy) during the latter ninth 
century is a case in point. At the age of twelve years (303 A. D.) 
she suffered martyrdom at Agen with bishops St. Caprais, St. 
Prime, and St. Felicien. In the fifth century their remains were 
secretly collected and transferred to the basilica of that place. Soon 
the tomb of St. Fides became celebrated because of the miracles 
performed there, and pilgrims came from distant countries to it. 
During the ninth century, the monastery of Conques in Rouergue 
commenced to be celebrated. Desiring the body of a saint to at- 
tract the faithful, the abbot sent some of its monks to get the relics 
of St. Vincent of Sargossa; but on their way, these envoys heard 
of St. Fides and decided to secure her relics. Accordingly, one of 
their number became a secular priest at Agen, gained the confidence 
of the monks, and was assigned the task of guarding the relics of 
this saint. After two years he managed to steal these relics and 
escape with them to Conques. There they attracted pilgrims not 

praesumant de corpore; sed tantummodo in Pyxide brandeum mittitur at que 
ad sacratissima corpora sanctorum ponitur. Quod levatum in ecclesia, quae 
est dedicanda, debita cum veneratione reconditur! Le pape ajoute: 'In 
Romanis namque vel totius Occidentis partibus omnino intolerabile est atque 
sacrilegium, si sanctorum corpora tangere quisquam fortasse voluerit. Quod 
si praesumpserit, certum est quia haec temeritas impunita nullo modo remane- 
bif). A l'epoque merovingienne, les restes des saints donnes comme reliques 
etaient done fort rares et dans tous les documents qui nous sont parvenus, 
on ne peut enregistrer que deux ou trois cas qui prouvent la violation du 
tombeau." See also ibid., p. 223. 

"Albert Hauck, Relics, Encyc. Brit. Vol. XXIII (1911), p. 60. See also 
N. Delehaye, Saints, ibid., XXIII, p. 1101. 

"Herbert Thurston, Catholic Encyc. (1911), Vol. XII, p. 737; sources 
given. 

10 Liber Miraculorum Sancti Fides publie par l'abbe A. Rouillet (Collec- 
tion de textes pour servir a l'etude et a l'enseignement de l'Historie). See 
introduction for account. The translation took place about 878. 



THE M EDI ALVA I. POINT OF VIEW 2f) 

only from surrounding districts, but also from Aquitania, France, 
and all Europe. It was at the beginning of the eleventh century 
(1006) that Bernward, bishop of Hildesheim, made a pilgrimage to 
St. Martin's at Tours and St. Denis' at Paris, and brought back to 
Hildesheim the relics of these and other saints for his monastery. 11 

This general attitude toward relics in the tenth and eleventh 
centuries is well summarized by Professor Warren. "Quick to 
take advantage of the general enthusiasm for holy things, bishops 
vied with abbots in exalting the importance of their charges. The 
healing power of relics was confidently proclaimed, and measures 
were taken to heighten their sanctity. The discovery of a part of 
Moses' rod at Sens, which brought to that city a goodly influx of 
worshippers from all western Europe, and incidentally made Sens 
and its see opulent, prepared the way for the appearance of St. 
John the Baptist's head a year or two later (1010) at St. Jean 
d'Angely, at the opportune moment of the return of William of 
Aquitania from his customary pilgrimage to Rome. Some con- 
tentious minds there were who scouted the genuineness of the 
treasures, but the visit of Robert and his queen to the sacred spot, 
of the king of Navarre, the duke of Gascony, the count of Cham- 
pagne, not to mention princes and bishops, abbots and magistrates. 
French and Provencals, Spaniards and Italians, speedily drove the 

petty critics to cover The age demanded memorials of 

the martyred dead, or at least the communities of religion did, and 
the demands were wonderfully supplied." 12 About a century later 

11 See Pertz, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores, Vol. IV, 
PP- 775-776 ' Vita Bernwardi Episcopi Hildesheimensis. 

u F. M. Warren, A Plea for the Study of Mediaeval Latin, P. M. L. A. t 
XVII (new series, 1909), p. liii. Relics had another important use. Oaths 
were commonly sworn upon them. See Marignan, op. cit., p. 226: "Le culte 
des reliques va grandir de plus en plus durant le moyen age; deja il penetre 
dans la vie publique et tout serment ne sera tenu pour valable s'il n'est 
fortifie par la saintete de ces objects veneres. Les rois meme ont l'habitude 
d'un porter toujours avec eux, et les sujets des princes merovingiens leur 
jurent fidelite sur les chasses des saints (cf. Labbe, Concilia V, p. 27). 'Jura- 
verunt antipositis reliquiis sanctorum.'" A good illustration for our period of 
the usage suggested above is given by Orderic Vitalis (Historia Ecclesiastica, 
Bk. Ill, chap, xiv), who tells of William the Conqueror's wearing around 
his neck into battle the sacred relics upon which Harold, the immediate 
successor of Edward, had sworn : "Cujus (Harold) accelerationem Willermus 
dux ut audivit, omnes suos armari mane sabbati iussit, et ipse missam 
audivit, et dominicis sacramentis corpus et animam munivit, reliquiasque 
sanctas, super quas Heraldus juerat, collo suo humiliter appendit." 



30 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

than the time here referred to, when the abbey, St. Medard of 
Soissons, sent an embassy to get a tooth of Christ, Guibert de 
Nogent, 13 with a keenness of analysis practically unknown in his 
time, wrote a pungent criticism of the relic-seeking mania (ca. 
1119). 

L. Petit de Julleville 14 has indicated the practical significance 
of the relics of the saint for the people during the entire mediaeval 
period. In connection with the story of the death of St. Alexis at 
Rome, and of the thronging of the people in the streets to touch 
the saint's body, he writes : "Au xe siecle, le saint est avant tout un 
protecteur; son corps ou ses reliques materialisent, pour ainsi dire. 

cette protection Heureuse la cite qui renferme les reliques 

d'un saint et qui les honore ! Ce n'est pas le lieu de sa naissance 
ni meme lieu de sa mort qui determine les limites de son patronage ; 
c'est le lieu de sa sepulture." 

Thus the saint was the guardian, the intercessor, for the people. 
He was one of the most potent factors in making the Christian re- 
ligion real to them. His relics, as we have seen, were an absolute 
necessity for the establishing of a church, abbey, or monastery. 
They might be discovered through divine vision, begged, or stolen. 
That mattered not; possession was the important thing. In the 
minds of the devout, all the activities of the places possessing the 
relics centered about them, and prospered only through the divine 
assistance of the saint or saints represented. This, then, represents 
in part the cult of the saints during the middle ages. 

PILGRIMAGES TO SAINTS' TOMBS. 

We have already seen that it is the attitude toward saints' relics 
that explains in part the religious pilgrimages in the middle ages. 
According to legend, they began about 326 A. D. with the 

13 See Guibert de Nogent, De Pignoribus Sanctorum in Patrologia Latina, 
Vol. CLVI, cols. 607-679. See also appreciation and study by Abel Lefranc in 
Etudes sur I'Histoire du Moyen Age dediees a Gabriel Monod {Paris, 1896) pp. 
286-306. To the contention of two cities that each possessed the head of 
John the Baptist Guibert remarks in satirical vein : "Quid ergo magis ridicu- 
lum super tanto homine praedicetur, quam si biceps esse ab utrisque dicatur?" 
(P. L. op. cit., col. 624.). 

14 L. Petit de Julleville, Hist, de la Langue et de la Litt. franq. (Paris, 
1896), Vol. I, pp. 11-12. 



THE MEDIAEVAL POINT OF VIEW ^l 

pilgrimage of Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, to the 
Holy Land to find the true cross. 16 From that time the East became 
for the West the country of holy relics. One has but to read the 
first fifty pages of M. Brehier's 18 work on the crusades to see how 
the pilgrimages increased from the fourth to the close of the 
eleventh century, and how they included all classes. In a briefer 
study on the same subject he indicates clearly that one of the main 
factors which made the crusade possible was the attitude toward 
holy relics : "Instead of diminishing, the enthusiasm of Western 
Christians for the pilgrimages to Jerusalem seemed rather to in- 
crease during the eleventh century. Not only princes, bishops, 
knights, but even men and women of the humbler classes undertook 
the holy journey (Radulphus Glaber IV, vi). Whole armies of 
pilgrims traversed Europe, and in the valley of the Danube hospices 
were established where they could replenish their provisions. In 
1026 Richard, Abbot of St. Vannes, led 700 pilgrims into Palestine 
at the expense of Richard II, Duke of Normandy. In 1065 over 
12,000 Germans who had crossed Europe, under the command of 
Gunther, Bishop of Bamberg, while on their way to Palestine had to 
seek shelter in a ruined fortress, where they defended themselves 
against a troop of Bedouins (Lambert of Hershfeld, in Mon. Germ. 
Hist. Script. V. 168). Thus it is evident that at the close of the 
eleventh century the route to Palestine was familiar enough to 
Western Christians who looked upon the Holy Sepulchre as the 
most venerable of relics and were ready to brave any peril in order 
to visit it." 17 This was exactly the motive to which Pope Urban 
appealed when at the council of Clermont he spoke in behalf of the 
first crusade: "On 27 November (1095) the pope himself addressed 
the assembled multitudes, exhorting them to go forth and rescue 
the Holy Sepulchre. Amid wonderful enthusiasm and cries of 
'God wills it !' all rushed toward the pontiff to pledge themselves by 
vow to depart for the Holy Land." 18 

"Kellner, op. cit., p. 326. 

16 L. Brehier, L'&glise et L' Orient au Moyen Age, Les Croisades (Paris. 
1907). See especially pp. 32 ff. for the tenth century, and pp. 42 ff. for the 
eleventh century. 

"Crusades, Cath. Encyc, Vol. IV, p. 545- 

19 Ibid., p. 546. 



32 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

After the Orient, Rome, the city of martyrs, and Santiago de 
Compostela in Spain, the reputed possessor of the relics of St. 
James, were the principal meccas for the European world. But 
aside from these, there were numerous shrines containing relics 
varying from local to international interest. The cases of St. Fides 
of Conques, St. Martin of Tours, and St. Denis of Paris, already 
cited, furnish examples of this kind, and the list of names could be 
multiplied indefinitely. I do not hold that this was the only motive 
inciting people to go on these pilgrimages; others of importance 
could be mentioned; but they have nothing to do with our present 
study. The main point to emphasize here is that these pilgrimages 
find a practical significance for us in the attitude of the people to- 
ward holy relics, and toward the cult of the saints ; the popular at- 
traction for the pilgrims was the shrine of the saint. 

FESTIVALS OF SAINTS 

But the feature in connection with the cult which the Church 
emphasized from the beginning and on down through the middle 
ages was the anniversary or festival of the saint. This feature 
found official recognition first in the local calendars, which gave 
merely the names of the saints, and the dates and places of their 
feasts (i. e. the anniversaries of their passions) ; for, as the reader 
will recall from a previous paragraph, all anniversary services in 
their origin were purely local. 19 It seems that the breaking down 
of this "restriction of festivals to those commemorating saints 
of a specific locality", came about through the entrance of the 
Franks and Anglo-Saxons into the Roman church. Since 
these nations had no Christian martyrs and saints of their own, 
they adopted along with the Roman ritual the calendar and festi- 
vals of the Roman saints. Dr. Kellner 20 thinks that "the first 
step toward the general observance of the cultus of particular 
saints throughout the church, and the admission of other than 
merely local saints to a place in the devotions of each commun- 
ity", may have been affected by the litanies which came into use 
in France. However this may be, the significant fact for us is that 

19 Kellner, op. cit., p. 160 mentions as exceptions to this from the first John 
the Baptist and Stephen, the Protomartyr. 

30 Kellner, op. cit., pp. 158-159. According to him, the oldest form of litany 
of the saints is contained in the prayer book of Charles the Bald (875-881). 



THE MEDIAEVAL POINT OP VII W 33 

during the Carolingian period the West addressed its "ora pro 
nobis" to an interminable roll of martyrs, confessors, and virgins. 21 
More to the point as far as regards the official recognition of Roman 
saints' festivals in the West, is the fact that Pepin (751-768) re- 
placed the Gallican liturgy with the Roman and thus established the 
Gregorian calendar with its feast days of Roman saints. 22 

With regard to the cult of Oriental saints, M. Brehier 23 in the 
course of an interesting study on Oriental saints in the West sug- 
gests that Syrian merchants may have introduced them. Though 
this suggestion furnishes an interesting problem, its solution 
is not essential to our present study. The important fact for us 
is that in western Europe, long before the origin of the Miracle 
Play, both Oriental and Roman saints were honored on feast days 
and as patron saints sustained a vital relation to the people. 

In this connection, the special emphasis which Dr. Weydig puts 
on the fact that the Virgin Mary became widely honored by the 
Confreries in France beginning with the twelfth century, and that 
they gave dramatic presentation of her legends, furnishes a just 
cause for charging that he has failed in this respect to get the 
mediaeval point of view. 24 

What he says concerning the logical result of honoring her as it 
appears in the dramatic presentation of her legends is to the point. 
But the inference that there is something unique in the establish- 
ment of her cult and the diffusion of her legends through the West 
is surely misleading. The Mother of God, an Oriental saint in 
origin, did not come into the West as a lone wanderer. The gen- 
eral movement which made Oriental saints popular in the West was 

21 P. L. CXXXVIII, 885-892 gives examples. 

22 For discussion of establishment, list of feast days included, and ex- 
planation of origin of feast see L'Abbe A. Collette, Hist, du Brcriaire de 
Rouen (Rouen, 1902), pp. 33-57. 

23 L. Brehier, Les Colonies d'Orientaux in Occident an Commencement 
du Moyen Age in Bycantinische Zcitschrift, Vol. XII (1903)', pp. 35-36. 

34 Weydig, op. cit., p. 20. See especially: "Die oben erwahnten Marien 
'Anekdoten', die meist griechischer oder uberhaupt orientalischer Herkunft 
und sehr alt waren, wie verschiedene Beispiele zeigen, lieferten zuerst das 
Material fur die theatralischen AutTuhrungen ; die in den Confrerien oder 
Puys stattfanden, wo die Marienverehrung gepflegt und literarische Wett- 
kiimpfe an den Festen der Mutter Gottes veranstaltet wurden." 



34 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

well established by the tenth and eleventh centuries, and naturally 
included the Virgin Mary, though it is true that she was one of the 
most popular. 25 The logical result of this movement was the estab- 
lishing of a new fashion in European literature : the writing of Latin 
lives of those saints, and the inventing of new, marvelous legends 
concerning them. 26 

There is another significant fact for us which the modern point 
of view has caused many people to overlook : according to the medi- 
aeval popular conception every saint alike, whatever place modern 
historical criticism has given him, was a patron or intercessor and 
a protector. Thus from a popular point of view, in the same class 
came such saints as Martial, Denis, Martin, Nicholas, Catherine, 
Lazarus, Paul, and John the Baptist. Take the case of St. Mar- 
tial, bishop of Limoges during the third century, as an illustration 
of how popular conception gave him a place beside the disciples of 
the Saviour. I quote Leon Clugnet's words : "Very early, the popular 
imagination, which so easily creates legends, transformed St. Mar- 
tial into an apostle of the first century. Sent into Gaul by St. Peter 
himself, he is said to have evangelized not only the Province of 
Limoges but all Aquitaine. He performed many miracles, among 
others the raising of a dead man to life, by touching him with a 
rod which St. Peter had given him. A 'Life of St. Martial' at- 
tributed to Bishop Aurelian, his successor, in reality the work of 
an eleventh century forger, develops this account. According to 
it, Martial was born in Palestine, was one of the seventy-two disci- 
ples of Christ, assisted at the resurrection of Lazarus, was at the 

25 The writings of Hroswitha (b. ca. 940, d. ca. 1002) indicate that saints' 
legends were well known in her time ; q. v. : Hrotsvithce Opera, recensuit et 
emendavit Panlus de Winterfeld (Berlin, 1902). 

26 Here again Petit de Julleville {Hist., Vol. I, p. 18) summarizes the sit- 
uation for us: "Vers le xe siecle, les vies de saints orientaux, j usque-la peu 
connues en Occident, se repandirent en France par des redactions latines, et 
l'imagination emerveilee en regut une vive secousse. On commence dans 
mainte abbaye d'ecrire la vie d'un saint patron, dont on s'etait contentee 
j usque-la de savoir le nom et de venerer les reliques. Les documents faisai- 
ent defaut ; on s'en passa, on se contenta des traditions les plus vagues et 
les plus lointaines ; quelquefois peut-etre on se passa de traditions comme de 
documents, et l'imagination fit tous les frais. II y eut certainement de grands 
abus dans ce zele hagiographique." Petit de Julleville also calls attention 
to the fact that Guibert de Nogent denounces this practice. 



l HE M I DTAEVAL POINT OF VH.w 35 

per, was baptized by St Peter, etc. This of fables, 

which fills long pages, was received with favor not only by the 
unlettered but also by the learned of past centuries and even modern 
times."- 7 I call attention to this aspect of the mediaeval point of \ 
for a recognition of it will assist much in the interpretation of our 
problem. 

But we now return from this necessary digression to the char- 
acter of the saint's feast. In its origins, as the reader will recall, it 
was a solemn memorial. The first move away from this, after the 
cult of saints became established was a change to a local feast 28 in 
honor of the saint to whom a church had been raised. In this 
connection, Marignan's 29 chapter on the feast of the saint has one 
significant fact for us, viz., as early as the Merovingian period 
the feast day had two clearly distinguishable features, the ecclesias- 
tical and the unecclesiastical. The Church furnished the ecclesi- 
astical in religious services lasting from midnight vigils into the 
evening of the feast day itself. 30 

The people furnished the unecclesiastical in informal reunions, 
banquets, dances, orgies, and in fairs for the exchange of goods. 
Down through the middle ages the two developed side by side. The 
Roman breviaries give us the former; and the repeated prohibitory 
decrees of the Church regarding various folk pastimes on feast 
days, 31 and especially on the vigils, show that the latter kept pace. 

27 St. Martial in Cath. Encyc. (1910) Vol. IX, p. 722. For complete con- 
temporary narrative see Ordcric Vitalis, op. cit., Bk. II, chap. xvii. 

28 We have already seen that the local feast in time became general. 
28 Marignan, op. cit., pp. 107-154. 

^Attention should be called here to the manner in which the worship of 
saints asserted itself in the beginning. At first, it appeared in the liturgy of 
the mass, then after the development of the service of the hours, it found a 
place there. As early as the sixth century, in connection with this service, 
it was customary, according to Aurelian of Aries (ReguJa ad Monachos, 
P. L. LXVIII, p. 396), to read a portion of the account of the martyrdom 
of a saint. This was the commencement of the lections of the breviary, and 
led to the collections of martyrologies, which contained lives or merely 
notices of the saints, arranged according to their feast days for the entire 
year. See Kellner, op. cit., pp. 246-247. 

"A good illustration of concessions to the people in this respect is given 
in a statement of Pope Gregory I. regarding the celebration of feast days 
by the early converts in Britain. The Pope is writing to Abbot Mellitus, 
just going into Britain (601 A. D.) : "And because they (the converts) have 



36 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

The important fact to bear in mind here, and later in connection 
with what I shall say concerning the origin of the Miracle Play, is 
that the ecclesiastical feature will constantly tend to include unof- 
ficial additions. Some of these will become official and others will 
become secular or unecclesiastical. It follows that the trend to the 
secular will be especially strong in an age of unecclesiastical influ- 
ences. One illustration of such an unofficial addition is the hymn, as 
we understand the term today, variously known during the middle 
ages as sequence, prose, or hymn. Concerning hymns L'Abbe Col- 
lette 32 writes that they were not introduced into the Roman liturgy 
until very late, and that their introduction finally was due to mo- 
nastic influence. The time at which this introduction took place is 
stated pretty definitely by another writer. Thus : "It was at a com- 
paratively late date (about the middle of the twelfth century) that 
the Roman Liturgy admitted hymns into its Breviary. In its 
primitive austerity it had rejected them, without however condemn- 
ing their employment in other liturgies." 33 

Now hymns were one part of the religious services of the saint's 
festival. For instance, we find that during the tenth and eleventh 
centuries the monks of St. Gall on the feast days of their patron 
saints went through the surrounding country bearing the relics be- 
longing to their monastry and singing festal songs. 34 In fact, 
one has but to go through the pages of Analecta Hymnica 
which include the Proprium de Sanctis to see that hymns were 
numerously employed for saints' feast days during the eleventh 
century. 35 

been used to slaughter many oxen in sacrifice to devils, some solemnity must 
be exchanged for them on this account, as that on the day of the dedication, 
or the nativities of the holy martyrs, whose relics are there deposited, they 

may celebrate the solemnity with religious feasting, and no 

more offer beasts to the Devil, but kill cattle to the praise of God in their 
eating, etc." Cf. Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, Bk. I, chap. xxx. 

^L'Abbe Collette, op. cit., p. 56. 

^Fernand Cabrol, Breviary, Cath. Encyc. (1907), Vol. II, p. 722. 

84 See P. A. Schubiger, Die Sangerschule St. Gallens (Einsiedeln, 1858), 
P. 70. 

^The ninth to the twelfth centuries represent a period of great develop- 
ment in feast days. Thus Fernand Cabrol (loc. cit., p. 721) writes: "Even 
up to the ninth century the feasts of saints observed in the breviary were 
not numerous." But concerning the twelfth century F. S. Holweck (Cath. 
Encyc, Vol. VI, p. 22) tells us that "the decree of Gratian (ca. 1150) men- 
tions forty-one besides diocesan patronal celebrations." 



mi. Ml DIAEVAL POINT OF VII 37 

The following summary from a passage by L'Abbe Collette 3 * 
gives further examples of such unofficial additions to saints 1 ser- 
vices. In the eleventh century there was in Normandy a pleiad of 
monks, musicians, and litterateurs, who enriched the liturgy of 
fices, of which the usage was preserved in part down to the eight- 
eenth century. Isembert, monk of St. Ouen and later abbot of 
Mount St. Catherine at Rouen, wrote the text and music of the 
office of St. Ouen as well as that of St. Nicholas ; and Ainard, of 
Mount St. Catherine, composed the Office for the patron saint of 
that monastery. From that same period date the Office of St. YVul- 
fran, composed by Angelran, a monk of Saint-Riquier, and those of 
St. Wandrille and St. Ansbert. There is attributed to Angelran also 
an Office in honor of St. Valery. As later evidence will show, it is 
just such embellishments 37 as these that are of prime importance in 
connection with the origin of the Miracle Play. 

MEDIAEVAL MONASTERIES 

Another fact of importance here is that the immediate environ- 
ment of the Miracle Play in its origin is the monastery. The first 
significant feature for us about the mediaeval monastery is its cor- 
porate character. Although the monastery had been originally 
designed only as a place to which a man might retire from the world 
in order to devote himself more entirely to the religious life, it 
came in time to include many activities foreign to this primitive 
idea. A brief survey of some of these will be sufficient for our 
purposes. One of interest and importance is the commercial. Ac- 
cording to M. Fagniez, 38 the early history of commerce in France is 
to be sought in connection with the mediaeval monasteries. 
Through tax exemptions granted them by the crown in the use of 

88 L'Abbe Collette, op. cit., pp. 64-65. 

87 An essential difference between such embellishments as the hymn and 
the sequence to saints' feast day services, and that of tropes to liturgical 
texts (cf. L. Gautier, Les Tropes, Paris, 1886) is that the sequence is not an 
integral part of the text, while the trope is. Clemens Blume {Trope, Cath. 
Encyc, [1912], Vol. XV, p. 65) puts this difference in a word: "The se- 
quence is an independent unit complete in itself; the trope however forms 
a unit only in connection with the liturgical text, and when separated from 
the latter is often devoid of meaning." 

as \Y. Gustave Fagniez, Documents Relatifs a lllistoire de V Industrie 
el du Commerce en France; I-I. sieclc-xiiis. (Paris. 1898), pp. xxviii ff. 



38 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

highways, through their locations favorably chosen, through their 
landed possessions, and under the guidance of intelligent monks 
they exerted a great influence on the development of this feature 
of mediaeval life. Another of the monastic activities concerning 
which M. Fagniez gives valuable evidence is the industrial. As an 
example of this sort he cites the case of the industrial organizations 
which centered around Saint-Riquier. There by the middle of the 
ninth century were bakers, merchants, blacksmiths, armorers, shoe- 
makers, and various other tradesmen grouped according to their 
trades by streets around the abbey, subjects, paying a regular tax of 
their goods to it. 39 An additional instance of the same kind is fur- 
nished by a chronicler of St. Bertin. 40 He tells, according to Fagniez, 
that in 88 1, after the destruction of that abbey by fire, St. Folques, 
its restorer, arranged the population by trades in the same manner 
as indicated in the case of Saint-Riquier; and later chronicles of 
the abbey refer to the same arrangement. Again, when Bernard 
de Quincey founded the monastery of Saint-Sauveur at the com- 
mencement of the twelfth century, the faithful flocked there and put 
themselves under its authority. Among these were handworkers 
and skilled tradesmen, such as carpenters, blacksmiths, metal 
workers, and sculptors. All these worked under the orders of the 
abbey and employed their gains for common use. 41 M. Fagniez 
summarizes the situation thus : It was then under the tutelage of 
the church that the first craft corporations were organized and, 
strange thing, commenced to be secularized. 42 He shows also with 
regard to the arts and trades that from the sixth to the twelfth 
centuries there was a constant interchange of skilled metal and 
trade workers among the different monasteries of Europe. 43 

39 Ibid., pp. xxx, xxxi. For source, see Latin appendix No. 7: Inventaire 
des cens et redevances dus a I'abbaye de Saint Riquier (en 831) dans Hariulf 
chronique de V Abb aye de Saint Riquier. 

40 Ibid., p. xxxii. Source: Jean d'Ypres Chron. Sancti Bertini an. 881 
in Histoire de France, p. 71 A; also 75. 

41 Ibid., xxxiii. Cf. Orderic Vitalis, Hist. Eccl, lib. viii. 

42 Ibid., xxxiii. 

43 Ibid., p. xxxxiv, xxxv. An instance not cited by Fagniez of the activity 
of a monastery in arts and trades is that of Hildesheim, the home of the 
eleventh century manuscript of our St. Nicholas plays. It had its period of 
great renown during the eleventh century. Cf. Cath. Encyc. (1907), Vol. II, 
p. 513; ibid., (1910), Vol. VII, pp. 353-354- 



THE MEDIAEVAL POINT OP VI ; 39, 

Another of the activities of the monastery was educational. Accord- 
ing to Leon Maitre, 44 who has made a study of this feature of 
mediaeval, monastic life, the monastic and episcopal schools are 
the only institutions which furnished instruction from the ninth to 
the thirteenth century; he designates this as the Benedictine period 
of instruction. 

The monastery is thus a commercial, industrial, cultural, and 
educational center. The religious activity is the only other one 
significant for our purposes. A discussion of its various features 
is not necessary here. The important fact to remember is that the 
dominant and centralizing force for all the activities of the mon- 
astery was its religious life. The religious services, the shrines of 
the patron saints, and their festivals — these were the unifying 
features. Thus individuals may have had special reasons for honor- 
ing a particular saint, but in their relation to the monastery its 
patron saint was theirs. As far as our study is concerned, we are 
dealing, not with the saints of a particular profession, but of a 
particular locality. And although our earliest Miracle Plays de- 
veloped in connection with monastic schools, there is no conclusive 
evidence that they originated out of a desire to honor patrons of 
scholars. Relative to our type of play, you may call it monastic 
literary drama, school drama, or what you will; the question I am 
concerned with is, what is its relation to the local cult of the saint, 
and particularly to his feast? The evidence presented in the 
following chapter should leave no doubt as to its actual relation. 
Finally, the other significant influence for us in connection with 
the mediaeval monastery is that of the Cluniac reform. As a result 
of this movement initiated in the tenth century hundreds of mon- 
asteries became united in great feudal organizations reaching over 
all Europe and England. 45 I merely call attention to the movement 
here. As will be seen later, it is a factor to be considered in con- 
nection with the origin and development of the Miracle Play. 

"Leon Maitre, Les £coles Episcopates et Monastiqucs de L'Occidcnt de- 
puis Charlemagne jusqu'a Philippe Auguste (Paris, 1866), pp. I73 _1 74- 

46 The standard work on this movement is Ernst Sackur's Die Clunia- 
censer (Halle, 1892), two vols. Reviewed in English Historical Review, Vol. 

x, pp. 137-138. 



40 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

THE MEDIAEVAL RENAISSANCE 

The period of the origin and development of the Miracle Play, 
as I have already stated, is that of the mediaeval renaissance, in- 
cluding in general the last half of the eleventh and the first half of 
the twelfth centuries. In this period, which in a sense marked 
a turning to a modern point of view in the problems attacked and 
ways of thinking, one main characteristic is clear even to the casual 
reader; it is an age of unecclesiastical influences. 46 The significant 
thing for us is the relation of these influences to monastic life. 
Thus in connection with the schools, Wattenbach 47 tells us that it 
was a period in which a zealous study of Roman antiquity vied 
with that of theology, and that men were completely at home 
in the Aeneid and in Ovid. A good example of such a man, in- 
fluential in monastic life, is Hezilo, Bishop of Hildesheim (1054- 
1079). After he had completed his studies in France and taken 
charge of the monastery at Hildesheim, he assumed charge of the 
instruction in the school there because of his excellent education, 
especially in his extensive acquaintance with the works of classic 
authors. 48 

Of course there were many factors that assisted in establishing 
this renaissance spirit within the monasteries. Undoubtedly one 
of the most important of these was the secular scholars. As young 
men, unfettered by monastic rules, often irreverent of traditions, 

46 By unecclesiastical influences I do not mean those outside of the 
Church. The all-inclusiveness of the mediaeval church practically excludes 
the possibility of any influence of an intellectual nature entirely outside it. 

47 W. Wattenbach, Lateinische Gedichte aus Frankreich im elf ten Jahr- 
hundert in Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akad. (1891)', p. 97. 

48 Cf. Th. Lindner, Allegemeine Deutsche Biographie, Vol. XII, p. 323: 
"Audi die Pflege des Schulenunterrichtes liess er sich anlegen sein, wie er 
selbst eine vortreffliche Bildung und Belesenheit in den classischen Autoren 
besass". I do not mean to imply that Latin classics were not taught in 
monastic schools before this period. At the close of the tenth century Richer 
(Hist, sui Temp., Lib. Ill, cxlvii) wrote concerning his teacher, Gerbart 
of Rheims, later Pope Sylvester II : "Portas igitur adhibuit, quibus 
assuescendos arbitrabatur. Legit itaque ac docuit Maronem et Statium 
Terentiumque poetas, Juvenalem quoque ac Persium Horatiumque satiricos, 
Lucanum etiam historiographum. Quibus assuefactos, locutionumque modis 
compositis, ad rhetoricam transduxit." My point is this: a widespread, 
zealous study of Latin classics was characteristic of this age. 



THE MEDIAEVAL POINT OF VII \\ 4 I 

human in all that the word implies, eager alike in the pursuit of 
knowledge and adventure, they wandered from school to school 
seeking instruction from the most famous teachers of the day, carry- 
ing with them everywhere something of the spirit of the forces 
in the world outside the monasteries that were humanizing and 
transforming society. Some of these wandering scholars remained 
such, others took the vows of the order and came in time to rank 
high in monastic and secular ecclesiastical affairs. But however 
zealous they might afterwards become in the monastic life, and 
however much age might sober down their youthful spirits, the 
renaissance had given them its permanent heritage of liberalizing 
influences. They were the leaven. In these men there blended 
the ecclesiastical and the unecclesiastical. 49 

Notable examples of the class here characterized are Hilarius 
(ca. 1 125), the author of one of our St. Nicholas plays, Odo of 
Orleans, bishop of Tournai (d. 1119), Lanfranc, archbishop of 
Canterbury (1005-1089), Geoffrey, abbot of St. Albans and author 
of the Lost St. Catherine play (d. 1146), and Abelard, the great 
teacher ( 1079- 1 142). A few words on the life of each of these 
men will suffice here. Little is known concerning Hilarius : 50 proba- 

48 P. S. Allen's comments on the goliards are pertinent here (Mediaeval 
Latin Lyrics, Modern Philology, Vol. V, p. 22) : "As early as the tenth 
century perhaps, but quite certainly as early as the eleventh, we know that 
the goliards were composing and singing Latin verses. I do not think it 
necessary to believe with Giesebrecht that the goliard movement originated 
in the schools of France during the twelfth century, but it may be well to 
imagine that it was there and at that time that the movement gained its 
greatest impetus and its widest currency". Cf. also Allen, The Origins of 
the German Minnesang, Mod. Phil., Vol. Ill, p. 19, relative to the character 
of the goliards. 

In this same connection, Creizenach (Geschichte, Vol. I, p. 93) believes 
that the introduction of comic and secular elements into the liturgical plays 
was due to wandering clerks and goliards. 

60 For summary of opinions of scholars regarding his nationality see 
P. S. Allen, Med. Latin Lyrics, Mod. Phil., Vol. VI, p. 73, footnote 3. 
For discussion of his non-dramatic poetical works see Ibid., pp. 72-76. For 
brief biography see Hist. Litt. dc la France, Vol. XII, pp. 251-254, and Diet. 
Nat. Biog., Vol. IX, p. 831. Professor Schofield, Eng. Lit. from the Norman 
Conquest to Chaucer (1906), p. 67 puts his significant characteristic in a 
brief sentence : "He seems to have been a full-blooded person without 
austerity.'" 



42 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

bly he was born in England. The significant fact is that we know 
he received instruction from Abelard (ca. 1125) at Paraclete, and 
went from there to the school at Angers to carry on his study. 
His history from this time is as obscure as that of his early years, 
but he apparently remained to the end a typical wandering scholar. 
Odo of Orleans led a much more regular life. He was born of a 
noble family in Orleans, received his training at Toul, and later 
became teacher of dialectics at Tournai. Then in 1092 he took 
the vows of the Cluniac order and became abbot of St. Martin's; 
and in 1105 he became bishop of Tournai, which office he held until 
his death. 51 Lanfranc's career was similar though somewhat more 
varied. He also was of noble birth; his parentage was Italian. In 
early life he studied in the different schools in Italy with the inten- 
tion of entering the legal profession. 52 But just as he was begin- 
ning to win fame in the work, he changed his mind, and deciding to 
enter religious life, traveled across Europe to Normandy to begin 
this new life in a foreign country, took the vows of the order under 
Herluin at the newly founded monastery of Bee, became first a fa- 
mous teacher there, then abbot, and finally, under William the Con- 
queror, received appointment as archbishop of Canterbury. Mat- 
thew Paris' brief account of Geoffrey of St. Albans, as secular 
teacher, monk, and abbot in a passage already quoted 53 puts him in 
the same class with the man just mentioned. And finally, the story 
of Abelard's life, in its essence an epitome of the spirit of the renais- 
sance, is too well known to need more than a passing mention here. 54 
I should call attention to the fact that in his heretical teachings he 

51 Cf. Hist. Litt. de la France, Vol. IX, pp. 583-606. Wattenbach's state- 
ment concerning him is relevant here (op. cit., p. 100) : "Es ist der nicht 
seltene Lebensgang der Gelehrten in jener Zeit. Von profanen Studien aus- 
gehend, ganz in der heidnischen Gottenvelt heimisch, auch nicht selten 
einem allzu freien Leben ergeben, werden sie plotzlich von der Gewalt des 
monchischen Geistes erfasst und wenden sich der strengsten kirchlichen 
Richtung zu". 

62 Cf . Orderic Vitalis, Hist. Eccl., lib. IV : "Hie ex nobili parentela ortus, 
Papiae urbis Italiae civibus, ab annis infantiae in scholia liberalium artium 
studuit, et saecularium legum peritiam ad patriae suae morem intentione 
laica fervidus edidicit." See also Hist. Litt. de la France, Vol. VIII, pp. 
260-305. 

53 Vide supra, chap. 1, p. 5. 

"Cf. Hist. Litt. de la France, Vol. XII, pp. 86-152. 



Tin mi D!.\i VAL POINT OP vi 43 

nplifies in its highest degree one aspect of the unecclesiastical 
influence. The important consideration for us in this brief survey 
is that these men of the monasteries represent a new spirit, the 
spirit of the renaissance. 

It is but natural, that in harmony with the spirit of such men as 
these, the mediaeval renaissance was a great creative period. This 
fact is too well known to need more than mere mention. On mat- 
ters having special relation to our problem I cite the evidence of 
some of our well-known, and recognized mediaevalists. Clemens 
Blume calls it the period of the zenith of Latin hymnody. 55 L'Abbe 
Collette has named a few of the "pleiad" of Norman monks, musi- 
cians and poets, who modified and enriched the liturgy of the saints' 
Offices during this century, and has indicated some of their work in 
this respect. 56 Professor Wilhelm Meyer writes that music, also, 
was making significant progress, 57 that it had an essential relation to 
the spirit of the times, 58 and that it had a necessary part in all 
Mediaeval Latin Lyric and dramatic poetry. 59 

K Hymnody, Catholic Encyc. (1910), Vol. VII, p. 603. 

66 Vide Supra, chap. hi, p. 37. 

"See Fragmenta Burana (Berlin, 1001), p. 56: "In der ersten Halfte des 
12. Jahrhunderts entwickelte sich das geistige Leben jeder Art im nordlichen 
Frankreich zu wunderbarer Bluthe. Die Musik machte durch Einfuhrung 
der mehrstimmigen Compositionen bedeutende Fortschritte und wurde mit 
dem grossten Eifer von den sangesfreudigen Menschen jener Zeit ausgeubt 
und an der Hand der Musik betraten auch die Dichter neue Wege". 

68 Ibid., p. 179: "Der Geist des franzosischen Volkes regte sich am 
Schlusse des II. Jahrhunderts auf das Lebhafteste und wendete sich be- 
sonders auf die Wissenschaften, welche die hochsten Fragen behandelten, 
die Philosophic und die Dogmatik. Die geistigen Kampfe, welche sich in 
Frankreich daran kniipften und besonders durch die Griindung der Uni- 
versitat Paris ein festes Centrum erhielten, stellten in 12. Jahrhundert 
Frankreich den anderen europaischen Volkern voran. Denn wo die hochsten 
Wissenschaften gedeihen, da gedeihen auch die iibrigen. Das gilt besonders 
von der Dichtkunst. Diese erhielt einen neuen und machtigen Impuls durch 
die Einfuhrung des mehrstimmigen Gesangs, der in Frankreich im Anfange 
des 12. Jahrhunderts aufbliihte. Wurde so schon die Lust in prachtigen 
Festgesangen jeder Art erhabt". 

69 Ibid., p. 37: "Mogen die Handschriften Neumen oder Noten iiberliefern 
odernicht, die ganze mittellateinische lyrische und dramatische Dichtung 
ist stets ihrem Ursprunge treu geblieben. d. h., sie ist gesungen worden und 
die dichterischen und musikalischen Formen waren ebenso wichtig wie die 
Gedanken". 



44 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

Finally, it is well to recall here relative to the creative spirit, that 
the eleventh century also, according to Joseph Bedier, 60 marks the 
period of the Chanson de Geste, and that he has established this fact 
conclusively by a return to the mediaeval point of view in his study 
of the Chanson de Geste at its source in connection with monaster- 
ies, pilgrimages, and legends of saints. 

60 Cf. Joseph Bedier, Les Legendes Epiques: Recherches sur la formation 
des Chansons de geste (1908-1913), four vols.; and La Legende des 
Enfances de Charlemagne in Studies in Honor of A. Marshall Eliot (Balti- 
more, 1911), pp. 81-107. For brief summary of Bedier's work relative to 
the Chanson de Geste see G. Lanson, Histoire de la Litterature Francaise 
(Paris, 1912), pp. 25 it. 



CHAPTER IV. 
St. Nicholas and His Miracle Plays 
The purpose of this chapter is to show that there is an essential 
and causal relation between the features of mediaeval life just dis- 
cussed and the origin of the St. Nicholas Miracle Play. As a pref- 
ace to this study I review briefly the St. Nicholas legend. Accord- 
ing to it, St. Nicholas was bishop of Myra, Asia Minor, during the 
first half of the fourth century. During his life he was especially 
noted as a benefactor of the people. As an instance of this, one of 
his first acts after he had received his inheritance was the bestowal 
of dowries upon three sisters in the manner represented in our 
"dowry" drama, in order to save their virtue. After his death 1 and 
burial at Myra, he continued his role of benefactor through his ap- 
pearance to those praying to him, and through the miraculous power 
of healing oil which continually flowed from his tomb. 2 A historical 
fact of importance to add here is that in 1087 Italian merchants stole 
his body from Myra and brought it to Bari, Italy. 3 

THE CULT OF ST. NICHOLAS 

Relative to his cult in Western Europe the following table will 
show his principal loci sancti in that part of the country up to the 
period of the appearance of his plays. 

1 The day of his death, which, of course, fixes that, of his feast day in 
the calendar, was December 6. 

2 Since the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists is completed only through 
the opening days of November, that work is of no assistance to one for 
the study of the St. Nicholas legends. The sources which I have employed 
for the study of the legends, of his cult, and of the honoring accorded to 
him on his feast day are principally the following: Analecta Bollandiana 
(1882 ff.) Vol. I-XXXI; Bibliotheca H agio graphic a Latina (Bruxelles, 1899), 
Vol. I-II; ibid., supplement (1911) ; Catalogus Codd. Hagiog. Lat. (Bruxelles 
1886), Vol. I-II; Catalogus Codd. Hagiog. Bibl. Nat. (Paris, 1889-1893), 
Vol. Mil; Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores, Vol. I-XXXI; 
Thesaurus Hymnologicus, H. A. Daniel (Leipsic, 1855), Vol. I-IV; Latein- 
ische Hymnen des Mittlelalters, F. J. Mone, (Freiburg, 1855), Vol. I-III; 
Analecta Hymnica, G. M. Dreves and Clemens Blume (Leipsic, 1886 ff.) 
Vol. I ff. See also Kurt K. Rud. Bohnstedt, op. cit., pp. 34-44. 

•Orderic Vitalis, op. cit., Bk. VII, chap, xii, gives an interesting con- 
temporary account. For recent study see Francesco Nitti di Vito, La Leg- 
enda delta Translatione di S. Nicola di Bari, I. Mariani Trari V. Vecchi 
(1902), 19 pp.; Estratto delta Rassegna Pugliese t. xix (1902), pp. 33-49; 
reviewed in Anal. Bolland. Vol. XXII (1902), pp. 352-354- 



4 6 



NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 



Germany. 



District 



Place 



West St. Amandus 4 . Ca. 50 miles s. w. of 
Liege. 
Lorraine Priim 5 . Ca. 40 miles s. e. of Liege. 

Brunweiler 8 . Ca. 50 m. n. e. of Liege. 

Liege 7 . 

Stavelot 8 . Ca. 20 m. n. e. of Liege. 

Stavelot 9 . 

Verdun 10 . District of Lorraine. 

Lobbes" Ca. 60 m. s. w. of Liege. 

Poussey". District of Lorraine. 

Brunweiler 13 . See above. 
North 

Saxony Halberstadt 14 . Ca. 50 m. s. e. of Hil- 
desheim. 
Liineburg 15 . Ca. 80 m. n. of Hildes- 

heim. 
Osnabruck 16 . Ca. 80 m. n. w. of Hil- 
desheim. 



Date. 



679 A. D. 
853 A. D. 

1028 A. D. 
1030 A. D. 
1030 A. D. 
1037 A. D. 
1045 A. D. 

Ca. 1080 
A. D. 

Ca. 1087 

A. D. 

1090 A. D. 



973 A. D. 
1055 A. D. 
1070 A. D. 



Evidence of 
Cult. 

Shrine. 

Martyrology 

of Wandelbert. 

Monastery. 

Miracles. 

Chapel. 

Shrine. 

Altar. 

Cloister. 

Miracles. 

Miracles. 



Church. 

Monastery. 

Church. 



4 Mon. Germ. Hist. Scr., Vol. XXV, p. 31. Since this is my earliest 
reference I quote the passage; "Qui cum (St. Amandus) sentiret suam 
dissolutionem, cupiens cum Christo vivere, iussit se deduci in dictam 
ecclesiam (coenobium in honore beati apostoli Petri), et cum viaticum atque 
extremam unctionem de manu sacerdotum accepisset, ante altare beati 
Nicolai, quern intimo cordis dilegebat, diu in oratione procumbens, sanctam 
animam orando inter manus angelorum Deo reddidit". For life of St. 
Amandus (587-679 A. D.) see Gallia Christiania, Vol. Ill, col. 255. 

5 Patrologia Latino, Vol. CXXI, col. 620. 

8 Mon. Germ. Hist. Scr., Vol. XI, pp. 396 and 401. 

"Ibid., Vol. XXV, pp. 69-70; Anal. Bolland., Vol. XX (1901), p. 429. 

8 Mon. Germ. Hist. Scr., Vol. XV, p. 965. 

9 Ibid., Vol. XII, p. 43. 

10 Ibid., Vol. VIII, p. 404. 

11 Ibid., Vol. XXI, p. 312. 

12 Ibid., Vol. XXV, p. 284; cf. Recueil des Historiens des Croisades 
(1895), Vol. V, pp. 293-294. 

"Mon. Germ. Hist. Scr., Vol. XIV, pp. 144-146. 

14 Ibid., Vol. XXIII, p. 86. 

15 Ibid., Vol. XXIII, p. 398. 
"Ibid., Vol. XII, pp. 74-75. 



ST. NICHOLAS AND HIS MIRACLE PLAYS 

Germans 

Place District 

Hildesheim 17 . 
Southeast Eichstadt 1 *. 

Bavaria Emmeramus 18 . Ca. 50 m. e. of Eich- 
stadt. 



47 



Passau 20 . 
stadt. 



Ca. 100 m. s. e. of Eich- 



Ca. 100 m. n. e. of Ein- 



Date. 


Evidence of 




Cult. 


Ca. 1 100 


Ms. of Miracle 


A. D. 


Plays. 


Ca. 965 


Ms. of 


A. D. 


Life by Bishop 




Reginaldus. 


Ca. 1050 


Life by Othlo, 


A. D. 


a monk 


Ca. 1070 




A. D. 


Monastery. 


089 A. D. 


Chapel. 


392 A. D. 


Church. 



South Lusanne 21 
siedeln. 
Suabia Peterhausen 22 . Ca. 40 m. n. e. of 1092 A. D. 
Einsiedeln. 
Zweifalr 33 . Ca. 70 m. n. e. of 

Einsiedeln. 1092 A. D. Church. 

Einsiedeln 34 . Fragment of Miracle 
Play. Ms. of twelfth 

France. centur y- 



District. Place. 

Southeast. Vienne. 25 Upper Rhone. 

North-central. Paris. 88 



Angers. 



Date Evidence of Cult 

858 A. D. Martyrology of 

Ado. 
Before 1031 Chapel in Palace 
A. D. founded by 

Robert the Pious. 
1020 A. D. Monastery 



Northwest, 
and Center. 

"Zts. fur deutsches Alterthum, Vol. XXXV (1891), pp. 401-407- 

18 Mon. Germ. Hist. Scr., Vol. VII, p. 257; and Anal. Bolland., Vol. II 
(1883), pp. 143-151- 

19 Mon. Germ, Hist. Scr., Vol. XI, p. 391. 

• "Ibid., Vol. IX, p. 748; and Vol. XXV, p. 657. 
21 Ibid., Vol. XXIV, p. 709. 
23 Ibid., Vol. XVII, p. 277. 
'Ibid., Vol. X, p. 75. 

24 Anzciger fiir Kunde der dcutscheti I'orzcit, Vol. VI (1859), col. 
207-210. 

* Patrologia Latina, Vol. CXXIII, col. 411. This should be connected with 
the martyrology of Wandelbert of Priim (q. v. note 5 under table for Germany^, 
for, according to Kellner {op. cit., p. 284), Ado lived at Priim from 829 
to 853. 

* Mon. Germ. Hist. Scr., Vol. IX, pp. 318 and 386-7. 

27 Cat. Codd. Hagiog. Lat. Bibl. Nat., Vol. Ill, pp. 159-160; Gallia 
Christ., Vol. XIV, pp- 558 and 567. 



48 



NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 



Place 



Normandy Rouen. 28 



District 



Date. Evidence of 

Cult. 



and 
region 
valley, 
of Loire 



Crux. 



Before 1054 
A. D. 

Subject monastery Before 1087 



of Charitas. 
Noron. 81 
Cultura. 30 
Angers. 82 
Angers.* 3 
Bee. 84 

Fleury. 85 

Angers. 39 

Normandy. 87 

St. Albans. 38 



England 



Musical Office. 

Miracle. 

Legends. 

Miracles. 

Miracles. 

Church. 

Legends and 

Miracles. 
Ms. of plays. 

Ms. of play 

by Hilarius. 

Wace, La Vie St. 

Nicholas. 

Altar. 3 * 



A. D. 
1090 A. D. 
1090 A. D. 
1090 A. D. 
1096 A. D. 
1 100 A. D. 

Twelfth 

Century 

Twelfth 

Century 
Twelfth 
Century 

Early 
Twelfth 
Century 
18 Collette, op. cit., p. 64. 

26 Cat. Bibl. Nat, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 430-1; ibid., Vol. I, pp. 510-1 ; 
Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda Aurea, chap, clxxxi, if on. Germ., Vol. 
XXXI, p. 359 ; Gallia Christ., Vol. XII, cols. 403-404. 

30 Cat. Bibl. Nat, op. cit, Vol. Ill, pp. 158-159; Gallia Christ, Vol. XIV, 
p. 473; Hist. Litt. de la France, Vol. VIII, pp. 444-446. 

31 Orderic Vitalis, op. cit., Bk. VII, chap. xiii. 

82 Ibid. 

83 Mom. Germ., Vol. Ill, p. 168; Vol. XXVI, p. 461. 

s *Cat Bibl. Nat, Vol. II, pp. 404-432; cf. Hist. Litt. de la France, Vol. 
X, p. 294. 

35 Vide supra, chap. 11, p. 8, footnote to Fleury plays. 

86 Vide supra, chap, iii, p. 42. The significant fact here is not that we 
know where Hilarius composed his play, but that we have established his 
relations with a center of the St. Nicholas cult. 

87 Ul. Chevalier, Repertoire des sources du Moyen Age ( Bio. -Bibl. ) , Vol. 
II, col. 4724; cf. Cath. Encycl, Vol. XV, p. 521. 

38 Vide infra, chap, vi, p. 75. 

"The loci sancti thus include in Germany, the districts of Bavaria and 
Suabia to the east and south, Saxony to the north, and Lorraine to the west ; 
in France the Upper Rhone to the south, Paris in the north, and Normandy 
and the Loire valley in the northwest and center; and in southern England, 
St. Albans. In all cases the districts are indicated according to mediaeval 
geographical divisions. 



ST. NICHOLAS AM) HIS MIRACLE PLAYS 

I E OF i HE i:\idi : 
me observations based on the evidence presented in this table 
follow. In the first place, it is noticeable that all the plays are 
located in districts where the cult of St. Nicholas has previously 
been established. In the second place, Normandy and the Loire 
valley are the most active centers of the cult. In this connection, 
the references to the founding of the monastery at Angers, and to 
the later miracles there, are interesting and significant because they 
are an indication of the attitude of the people toward St. Nicholas 
during this period. One version of the story of the founding is 
told as a preface to a miracle which happened at the monastery in 
the latter part of the eleventh century. In this record 40 the narrator 
tells us that while Fulk Nerra 41 was journeying toward Jerusalem to 
expiate his offences against God in wars, the ship on which he was 
sailing was overtaken by a storm near Myra. In company with 
others on board he prayed for succor; but the storm continued. 
Then some one mentioned that they were near the city in which St. 
Nicholas was buried, and that he had rescued from the perils of the 
sea many who had prayed to him. Fulk Nerra 42 prayed to the saint, 
asking his intercession before God for their safety, and vowing, if 
the prayer was answered, to dedicate a monaster}- to him on his 
return home. Soon after this the sea became calm, and the ship 
reached port safely. Later, when Nerra returned to Angers, he 
founded the monastery as he had vowed to do. The miracle which 
follows this prefatory narrative is of a paralytic boy, Brientius. 
who prayed and kept vigils continually before the shrine of St. 
Nicholas with psalms and hymns until one night he was healed by 
the saint, who called to him from heaven: ''Surge. Briente, Nicolaus 
ego sum." Another illustration of his work as a benefactor is found 
in the case of the church of St. Nicholas Ad Muscas at Liege 
(i03o). 4a Here the church was dedicated to him because, in 

40 Cat. Bibl. Nat., op. cit., Vol. Ill, pp. 159-160. 

"For brief account of Fulk Xerra see Encyc. Brit. (191O, Vol. XI, 
P- 294. 

43 The same narrative tells that Geoffrey, the son of Fulk Nerra, deposited 
in the monastery relics of St. Nicholas, which had been given him by Henry 
III, Emperor of Germany. According to Gallia Christiania, Vol. XIV, p. 
667, the translation occurred in 1057. 

** Anal. Bolland., Vol. XX, p. 425; Mon. Germ., Vol. XXV, pp. 69-70. 



s 



50 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

response to the prayers of the people, he had caused a plague of flies 
to cease. 

Further, the evidence presented in the table above indicates that 
active interest in the development of the cult apparently begins in 
the eleventh century. This interest became intensified during the 
latter part of the century by the above-mentioned translation of his 
relics to Bari; for the acquisition of them meant much not only to 
Bari and all Italy, 44 but also to France and Germany. One chronic- 
ler tells us that shortly after the translation, a soldier who had man- 
aged to get a portion of a finger bone of St. Nicholas as a relic, 
brought it to Poussey in Lorraine and thus attracted there people 
from Burgundy, France, and Germany to be healed or to worship. 45 

According to Orderic Vitalis, Normandy also was active in its 
efforts to secure a share of the relics. Thus, Stephen, the cantor 
of the monastery at Angers, by express permission of Natalis, his 
abbot, went to Bari, lived there as a clerk, gained the confidence 
of the sacristans who guarded the relics, and at the favorable mo- 
ment, stole an arm of St. Nicholas set in silver, and kept outside the 
shrine for the purpose of giving the benediction. 46 Notwithstand- 
ing that a hue and cry was proclaimed over all Italy, he managed to 
escape with it as far as Venosa. Here he was taken sick and had 
to detach the silver from the arm for his support. This led to the 
discovery of him and the recapture of the relic, which the mon- 
astery at Venosa at once appropriated. 47 A more successful effort 
was that of William Pantoul, a knight from Noron, Normandy. 
He visited Bari, and "by God's blessing obtained from those who 
had translated the body one tooth, and two fragments of the marble 
urn" in which his relics had rested at Myra. These he deposited 
in the church at Noron in 1092, where they "became in frequent 

44 Cf . Orderic Vitalis, op. cit., Bk. VII, chap, xii : "Protinus diversae mul- 
titudines ab universis totius Hesperiae provinciis convenerunt." Also : 
"Denique permittente Deo, plures ecclesiae de Sanctis reliquiis praefati prae- 
sulis obtinuerunt. Et non solum Itali et Pelasgi, sed et aliae gentes, Sanctis 
pignoribus habitis, Deo Gratias concinunt." 

"Mon. Germ., Vol. XXV, p. 284. 

** The employment of the same method as related here by the monk who 
stole the relics of St. Fides {vide supra, chap, in, p. 28) suggests that this 
may have been a favorite device among relic seekers. 

47 Orderic Vitalis, op. cit., Bk. VII, chap. xiii. 



II 



ST. NICHOLAS AND BIS MIRACLE PLAYS 5 1 

request by persons suffering from fevers and other maladies, whose 
devout prayers aided by the merits of the good bishop Nicholas ob- 
tained what they desired in the recovery of their health." " 

Finally, evidence cited in our tables indicates that in spirit and 
form the honoring of St. Nicholas was adapted to renaissance in- 
novations of which a logical sequence was the Miracle Play. I 
refer to one of a number of legends written by a monk of Bee 49 in 
the twelfth century. It is an account of a miracle which took place 
in connection with our saint's feast day services at Crux, a subject 
monastery of St. Charitas, on the upper Loire. Because of the im- 
portance of this legend to us for the purposes of our study, I re- 
print entire the two earliest versions which I have found. The first 
one which I give is from a manuscript 50 of the fourteenth century in 
the Bibliotheque Nationale, but is regarded by the Bollandists as 
earlier than a thirteenth century version in the same library. 
The legend follows: 

"Cluniacensi coenobio subest quaedam cella quae dicitur Caritas, 
in qua primum praepositus constitutus est vir nobilis et religiosus, 
nomine Girardus, qui regimen ejusdem ecclesiae tenuit plus quam 
triginta annos : sub quo nimium crevit ipsa eadem cella, ita ut sub 
se haberet alias cellas. Inter alia vero quae possedit fidelium devo- 
tione, data est quaedam possessio, quae Crux dicitur, in terra 
Brigiensi a quodam illustro viro. Ad quam possessionem veneran- 
dus Girardus statim transmisit quam plurimos monachos, praeponens 
eis religiosum virum quendam et ferventem in ordine suo. Ubi 

19 Ibid. 

49 Cf. Hist. Litt. de la France, Vol. IX, p. 294; "Un moine du Bee, qu'on 
croit avoir porte le nom de Nicolas, publia vers le meme temps (Xlle. 
siecle) une relation des miracles des Nicolas, Eveque de Mire, qui se 
multiplierent en plusiers lieux, apres qu'on eut transfere son corps en 
Occident." 

" See Cat. Bibl. Nat., op. cit., Vol. Ill, p. 404 (notice of manuscript) : 
"Codex Signatus num. 5638. Olim Colbertinus 1172, deinde Regius C 3863 

6.6.B. Foliorum 139 columnis binis, exaratus saec. XIV." For text 

see pp. 430-431. Regarding its priority to the thirteenth century version 
the Bollandists write (p. 430 footnote) : "Quae sequuntur jam aliis verbis 
repperimus in Cod. 5285 (torn. I, pp. 510-51 1, num. 26) (for Ms. notice 
of thirteenth century version, vide infra, chap. IV, p. 54). Attamen non 
ingratam legentibus non facturos censuimus, si et hanc narrationem, simpli- 
ciorem et, ut videtur, magis primigeniam hie exhibuerimus." 



52 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

dum essent, supervenit festivitas beatissimi ac gloriossissimi con- 
fessoris Christi Nicolai. Turn fratres requisierunt priorem si his- 
torian! de festivitate, quae est propria, decantarent. Quibus ille 
respondit : Non, quia apud Clunia&wm non cantatur. Et illi e contra 
Dominus Girardus, prior, facit earn cantare in domo nostra de 
Caritate; et quod in domo nostra cantatur, nos debemus cantare. 
Siquidem idem Girardus a juventute sua illectus in amore sancti, 
cum, ad prioratum venisset, fecit festivitatem ipsius sancti per se et 
per suos subjectos magnifice celebrari et propriam historiam decan- 
tari. Ad quorum verba respondit prior contumaciter et dixit: 
Nonne vos estis monachi Cluniacensis? Illi responderunt cum hu- 
militate se esse. Et ille : Quod in vestra ecclesia cantatur cantate, et 
nil amplius. 51 Altare die iterum interpellaverunt eum de supra- 
dicta re. Qui iratus interdixit eis ne ulterius de hac re eum re- 
quirerent. Sed illi perseverantes in petitione sua, tertia vice eum 
suppliciter exoraverunt ut eis concederet decantare historiam. Ille 
nimium iratus contra eos, vehementer verbis contumeliosis coepit 
eos arguere, eo quod ausi fuerint contra suum interdictum de hac 
re eum repetere insuper et scopa fecit eos vapulari pro hac culpa. 
Nocte vera subsequente, cum se sopori dedisset, ecce beatus Nic- 
olaus ante eum cum virga stetit sicque eum est aflatus : Tu fecisti 
Monachos tuos verberari causa met. Videbis quid inde tibi eveniet. 
Canta. Tunc ipse sanctus coepit antiphonam, quae sic incipit 
O Christi Pietas. Ille vero cum nollet subsequendo cantare, coepit 
eum vehementer verberare, more consueto magistri puero nolenti 
discere litteras. Quid multa? Tamdiu quippe verberando et dis- 
cendo decantavit ei antiphonam usquequo ille memoriter earn 
decantaret ex integro. At monachi qui circum jacebant, cum eum 
audissent quasi deplorando cantare supradictam antiphonam, sur- 
gentes de cubilibus suis, circumsteterunt lectulo illius cum lumin- 
aribus. Et videntes cum senimium defricantem, simulque decan- 
tatem antiphonam, vehementer abstupuerunt, quam maxime creden- 
tes aliquid secretum inesse, quod non videbant, per hoc quod oculis 
cernebant. Nullus tamen ausus est eum evigilare, magnopere ex- 
pectantes finem rei. Cum vero bene et memoriter ille per se ipsum 
decantasset totam antiphonam, evigilavit; vidensque fratres astare 

61 Cf. Du Cange, Glossarium, etc. (1883), Vol. II, p. 103: "Cantate, Cantus 
Ecclesiasticus vel potius missa, quae cantatur." 









ST. NICHOLAS AND HIS MIKAU.I. PL \ 

coram se cum luminaribus, nihilque volens eis tunc dicere, signi 
significatione jussit ut ad strata sua redirent, et ipse quod reliquum 
noctis fuit insomnem duxit cum timore et dolore. Mane autem 
facto, cum hora loquendi venisset et omnes in unum convenissent, 
dixit ill is : Indulgent vobis, fratres, Dcus, quod me fecistis tarn 
acriter verberari hac noctc. Ite, decantate historiam sicut petistis. 
Nam velim nolim concedere me oportet, ne iterum verberer sicut 
hac node rapulavi, et forsitan multo plus. Expertus enim sum 
hoc nocte quia durum est contra stimulum calcitrare. Turn ill i cum 
immensis precibus rogare coeperunt ut eis narraret quid vidisset 
et quid passus fuisset. Ille vero precibus eorum acquiescens, 
narravit eis omnia per ordinem sicut supra digestum est. Et 
probamentum verbis adiciens, exspoliavit se coram cunctis, osten- 
dens dorsum suum verberibus dilaceratum. Tunc illi videntes haec, 
in laudes Dei et sui piissimi confessoris Nicholai diutius cum 
lacrimis demorati sunt, celebrantes ejus festivitatem cum omni 
gaudio et laetitia, decantantes historiam sicut petierant. Festivitate 
transacta, perrexit prior cum aliquibus fratribus ad priorem suum 
Girardum, et veniens ante eum, prostravit se ad pedes ejus. Cui 
prior: Quid petis? Ille ait: Peto a vestra gratia ut a prioratu isto 
me liberetis. Et prior Girardus: Qua causa? Et ille: Quia fratres 
nostri me acriter feccrunt verberari a quodam. Ad haec nimium 
commotus prior Girardus dixit: Et quis ausus fuit tantum inordina- 
tionem facere? Ad quod monachi qui venerunt responderunt : 
Domne prior, noli perturbari, usque dum scias quis eum verberaverit 
et qua causa. Prior Girardus, videns eos nil timoris habere, ut 
sapiens vir, intellegens aliquod secretum esse, jussit priori ut 
coram omnibus ediceret quis eum verberavit et qua causa. Et Ille : 
Sanctus, inquit, Nicholaus verberavit me. Causa quae fuerit dicam. 
Tunc coepit coram omnibus narrare rem gestam. Prior Girardus, 
admirans novitatem rei, non poterat credere, sed existimabat fabu- 
losam esse quod audiebat. Turn prior ille: Ut scias, domne prior, 
quia verum est quod audisti, probatione ostendam tibi. Turn coram 
illo et omnibus qui adstabant exspoliavit se, et ostendit dorsum et 
scapulos nimium livientes verbere. Videns hoc prior Girardus, 
prae gaudio coepit flere, et in laudem omnipotentis Dei et sui pi- 
issimi confessoris Nicholai erumpens, coepit decantare antiphonam 
Christi Pietas. Deinde jussit ut per omnes cellas sibi subjectas 



54 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

supradictam historiam deeantarent, habens deinceps in maximam 
venerationem memoriam ipsius sancti, quamvis et antea plurimum 
habuisset." 

The following is a reprint of the thirteenth century version: 52 
Inter innumera virtutem insignia, quibus beatus Nicolaus inter 
spiritales patres velut inter astra fulgida caeli lucifer luminis 
singularis efTulsit, nostris quoque temporibus quantum sibi devote 
famulantibus favere, quantum suo famulatui obtrectantibus indig- 
nari consuevit, ostendere dignatus est. Qualiter autem res gesta 
contigerit, paucis explicare curabo. Cum nova sancti Nicolai his- 
toria de vita et miraculis ejus, scripta quidem per hominem sed 
homini divinitus inspirata, jam per totam paene latinitatem pro ejus 
dulcedinis immensitate in Christi ecclesiis longe lateque devotissime 
cantaretur in quadam cella quae Crux nominatur, sanctae Mariae 
de Caritate subjecta, pro pigritia habitantium necdum fuerat in- 
cohata. Tandem die una ejusdem loci seniores ante domnum 
Ytherium, suum videlicet priorem, pariter convenerunt, humiliter 
postulantes ut eis beati Nicolai psallendi responsoria licentiam daret 
Ille vero eorum petitionibus nullatenus adquiescens, respondit 
omnino fore incongruum in tali negotio morem pristinum quibus- 
libet novitatibus immutandum. At illi patris duritiam contuentes, 
hujuscemodi coeperunt urgere sermonibus : Cur, pater, audire filios 
contemnis? Cur, cum sancti Nicolai historia, spiritalis mellis 
dulcedine plena, tota jam paene orbe Celebris (sit), non cantetur 
a nobis? Cur aliis in tanta sollemnitate epulantibus, nos a tarn 
spiritualis convivii refectione pateris esse jejunos? Cur universis 
firme ecclesiis hac nova exultatione jubilantibus, haec sola modo 
muta silebit? Cum his et similibus valde commotus prior, in tali 
fertur erupisse blasphemia: Recedite, fratres: numquam enim vobis 
licentia a me concedetur ut relicto pristino usu nova saecularium 
cantica clericorum, immo jocularia quaedam, in ecclesia cui jubente 
Deo deservio ullatenus admittantur. Quibus auditis, nimio pro sua 
repulsa rubore perfusi, reniti non valentes ulterius discipuli quie- 
verunt, ac superveniente festivitate vespertinam matutinalemque 
synaxim, non sine quadam tristitia, veluti consueverant peregerunt. 

62 Catal. Codd., op. cit., I, pp. 510-511. Ms. Notice p. 502: "Codex Signatus 
num. 5284. Olim Folcardimantensis, deinde Colbertinus 2632 postea Regius 
C 3683.4.4. Foliorum 194 Columnis binis exaratus saec XIII." 



ST. Mi II oi AS AM) HIS M Ik \< LE PI 

Peractis veto vigiliis, ad propria strata sunt quiescendi gratia 
regressi. Cumque prior se in lectulo sicut ceteri collocasset, ecce 
beatus Nicolaus ei visibiliter terribilis valde apparuit, ipsumque pro 
sua obstinatione atque superbia verbis severissimis increpavit, atque 
per capillos a lecto abstrahens, dormitorii pavimento collisit ; 
incipiensque antiphonam pastor 04 1 erne, per singulas notae dif- 
ferentias virgis quam in manu tenebat gravissimos ictus supra 
dorsum patientis ingeminans, per ordinem morose canendo ad finem 
usque perduxit. Is autem tantis flagris et tarn insolita visione 
turbatus, clamare confusis vocibus coepit, quisque clamoribus ante 
se fratres protinus adunavit. Quern prostratum solo cernentes, quid 
viderit quidve passus fuerit sollicite requirebant. At ille, utpote 
amens effectus, nullum sciscitantibus valuit dare responsum. Sub- 
latus autem fratrum manibus, in cellam infirmantium deportatur, 
multisque diebus correptus languore gravissimo custoditur. Ad 
postremum, divina miseratione et beati Nicolai interventione sal- 
vatus, congregatis fratribus ait: Ecce, filii carissimi, quoniam vobis 
oboedire contempsi, duras pro cordis mei duritia poenia exsolvi. 
Amodo non solum quod petabitis gratanter annuo, verum quod 
quoad vixero ad canendam tanti patris historian* promptissimus 
atque paratissimus ero. 6S 

From these two versions, the important features of the legend 
may be summarized briefly as follows : Some Cluniac monks at 
Crux, a subject monastery of St. Charitas 54 in the Loire valley, on 

68 Another version of this legend is included by Jacobus de Voragine in his 
Legenda Aurea as a part of a chronicle under the Sancto Pelagio Papa; cf. 
Cap. CLXXXI, pp. 841-842, ed. Th. Graesse. Certain verbal agrements in- 
dicate a close relation to our thirteenth century version. It adds no new 
details. The version of Jacobus is copied by a mediaeval chronicler: cf. Man. 
Germ., etc., Vol. XXXI, p. 427 (Alberti Milioli notarii Regini, Liber de 
temporibus et aetatibus et Cronica imperatorum) . 

M In this connection, the following historical facts regarding St. Charitas 
are significant. Although in origin it dates back to 700, it was destroyed in 
754. Then in 1056 it was restored under the Cluniacs. Its first prior, Gerard, 
was appointed by Hugo, a member of that order. It came to have as trib- 
utary monasteries Reuil, in the diocese of Meaux, St. Fides of Longavilla 
in Rouen, St. Julien of Lesaune in Troyes, and St. Andrew of Northamp- 
ton, Wenlock, and Bermondsey, England. Cf. Gallia Christiana, Vol. XII, 
pp. 403-404. For additional tributary monasteries see index to G. F. Duckett's 
Charters and Records of the Abbey of Cluni (1888). 



56 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

St. Nicholas' feast day ask permission of their prior to sing a 
new and popular history of that saint's life, but are denied the 
privilege by the prior because it is not the ecclesiastical chant, and 
because it is the facetious composition of secular clerks. As a 
punishment to this prior, St. Nicholas appears to him on the night 
following his refusal and compels him to learn an antiphon used 
in his feast day services, in one version Christi Pietas, and in 
the other Pastor Aeterne. When Gerard, the prior of St. 
Charitas, hears of this miracle, he orders the history sung in all 
the subject monasteries. 

In this legend, I believe, is the key to the solution of our prob- 
lem, i. e., the origin of the Miracle Play. 

With this in view, it has at least a four-fold significance for us : 
first, as to the period during which this innovation is related as 
having become established; second, as to its general character; 
third, as to the objection made to it by the prior; and fourth, as to 
the antiphon employed in the earlier version. The period during 
which this innovation was becoming established as a feature of 
St. Nicholas' feast day celebration, according to our legend, is 
pretty definitely fixed by the reference to Gerard, prior of St. 
Charitas. Since the monastery was reestablished by the Cluniacs 
in 1056, and he was its first prior, "who had charge of it for more 
than thirty years," the miracle is related as having taken place 
some time between 1056 and approximately thirty years following, 
or the period during which the cult of St. Nicholas was becoming 
especially popular in Europe. 55 With regard to the general character 
of the innovation, we are here concerned with a history of the life 
and miracles of St. Nicholas which were not to be read, but sung 
for his feast day celebration. Thus we have here to do with musical 
services, an essential feature of our Miracle Plays. 56 Then the 

55 Cf. preceding footnote. Relative to Gerard cf. Gallia Christiania,ut supra 
"Hujus (Girardi) regimen annos amplius trigina tenuit ex lib. de miraculis 
S. Nicolai episcopi adeoque ejus obitu recte collocatur an. 1087 in Chronica 
Vizeliacensi." 

66 Vide supra text of first version: "Fratres requisierunt priorem si his- 
torian! de festivitate, quae est propria, decantarent;" and of the second 

version: "nova sancti Nicolai historia de vita et miraculis ejus 

jam per totam paene latinitatem longe lateque devotissime 

cant are tur." 



ST. M< SOLAS AND HIS MIRACLE PLAYS 57 

objection of the prior to the request of the monks is that un- 
ecelesiastical additions, new and facetious songs of secular clerks, 
arc being made to the regular services. 67 

As we shall see a little later, the unecclesiastical addition is a 
distinctive feature of our plays. And finally, the antiphons men- 
tioned suggest a logical relation between the legend and the plays, 
in that O Christ i Pietas** of the earlier legend is the choral ending 
of the Hildesheim scholars play and the Fleury dowry play. 

Xow as we have already learned, this was a period of unofficial 
embellishments in musical offices for saints' feast day services. 69 
We have observed specifically that at Rouen, during the second 
quarter of the eleventh century an office of this sort was composed 
for St. Nicholas by Isembert, abbot of Mont St. Catherine. 60 And 
it was during the period to which our legend refers that at St. 
Evrault's monastery, "secundum usum clericorum", a "history" of 
the patron saint was chanted in his honor, and hymns were com- 
posed to him. 01 

57 Vide supra first version, where the prior chides the monks for singing 

the history: "Nonne vos estis monachi Cluniacenses? Quod in 

vestra ecclesia cantatur cantate, et nil amplius." Cf. also in the second 
version his reply to their repeated requests: "Recedite, fratres. Numquam 
enim vobis licentia a me concedetur ut relicto pristino usu nova saecularium 
cantica clericorum, immo jocularia quaedam in ecclesia cui jubente Deo de- 
servio ullatenus admittantur." 

98 A problem suggested by this antiphon, and by the choral endings of all 
our plays is: What do they indicate as to the time of presentation of the 
plays? At present I lack sufficient evidence to come to any conclusion, but 
add the following for what it may be worth. The antiphon, Christi Pietas, 
was employed in Bayeux in the thirteenth century for St. Nicholas' feast 
day services, after the first vespers, during matins, and mass, and at the 
second vespers (cf. Ul. Chevalier, Ordinaire et Coutumier de L'£glise 
Cathedrale de Bayeux XHIe Steele [Paris, 1902], pp. 191-192). The Te Deum 
at the close of the Fleury scholars' and the Hildesheim Dowry plays, of 
course, in the regular liturgy occurs at the close of matins. And the well- 
known directions added by Hilarius to his Lazarus and Daniel plays (cf. 
Du Meril, op. cit., pp. 232 and 254) to the effect that Te Deum should follow 
if they were given at matins, and the Magnificat, if at vespers, indicate that 
plays were presented at both those hours. 

M Vide supra, chap, in, p. 37. 

90 Ibid. 

61 Cf. Orderic Vitalis, op. cit., Bk. Ill, chap. vii. Relative to the objection 
<>f the prior in our legend of St. Charitas the "secundum usum clericorum" 



58 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

As far as hymns 62 are concerned, there is sufficient evidence 
that the patrons of St. Nicholas also were not remiss in according 
the same honor to their saint. 

ORIGIN OF THE MIRACLE PLAY 

That the Miracle Plays are to be regarded as a logical sequence 
of these renaissance innovations is apparent when one looks to their 
form and spirit. Both are adequately characterized for our purpose 
by students of the plays. M. Sepet calls Getron, one of the Fleury 
St. Nicholas group, 63 a lyric dialogue with versification fashioned 
according to the principles of rhythmic Latin employed by Adam 
of St. Victor (d. 1142), the greatest Latin hymn writer of the 
mediaeval renaissance. 64 H. Suchier notices this same lyric quality 

of the chronicler is important. It is significant that the prior at St. Evrault 
during this renaissance in music had received his training at Rouen under 
Isembert mentioned above. 

For evidence that a "history" of St. Alban, at St. Albans, England, was 
set to music early in the eleventh century, vide infra, chap. VI, p. 75. 

62 For hymns of the eleventh century to St. Nicholas cf. F. J. Mone, op. 
cit. Vol. Ill, pp. 450, 452, 455; Analecta Hymnica, Vol. I, p. 194, Vol. II, 
p. 202, Vol. VII, p. 260, Vol. XlVa, p. 18, Vol. LI, p. 209; E. Du Meril, 
Poesies populaires latines anterieures an Xlle siecle (Paris, 1843), pp. 170-173. 
It is interesting here further to note a legend in a manuscript of the 
thirteenth century (Catal. Codd. Hagiog. Bibl. Reg. Brux., Vol. I, pp. 320- 
322). It relates that at Bari, shortly after the translation of the relics ot 
St. Nicholas, a widow who worshipped that saint devotedly remarked on his 
feast day that it was a reproach to St. Nicholas that there was no response 
or prose especially for him. A scholar who loved her heard this and wrote 
the prose beginning "Congaudentes", and the response "Confessor Dei 
Nicolaus." 

68 E. Du Meril, Origines Latines etc., p. 276 ff. 

64 Origines Catholiques du Theatre Moderne (1901), pp. 71-72: "Notre 
piece, en effet, est un dialogue lyrique, echange tantot entre deux person- 
nages, tantot entre un choeur et un acteur. La versification, appropriee a 
sa nature musicale, consiste en couplets symmetriques de quatre vers de dix 

syllabes Ces vers n'ont rien de sublime, mais habilement me- 

sures selon les principes de la rhythmique latine dont Adam de Saint Victor 
faisait vers la meme epoque un si bel emploi dans ses proses, ils ne manquent 
ni d'aisance, ni d'harmonie." 



Mi Hoi II [S M IK \< II PI 

in the play by I lilarius. 05 Then in referring to the Hildesheim 
. I h\ Weydig in three different places emphasizes their hymn- 
like- character, and even goes so far as to give them a hybrid j 
between hymn and drama. 60 And Petit de Julleville calls attention 

daily to the pagan spirit of the Fleury plays. As he puts it, 
they offer nothing of the liturgy, but indicate the influence and 
limitation of pagan antiquity. 67 

Finally, E. de Coussemaker makes a classification which puts 
the Fleury St. Nicholas plays in the same renaissance group as 
indicated by Sepet, Suchier, Weydig, and Petit de Julleville. 
Briefly, he says : the liturgical plays are of two sorts. 68 The former, 
closely connected with the religious ceremonies, borrow the litur- 
gical text, and merely paraphrase and put it into dialogue for the 
purposes of action. The latter (in which fall our St. Nicholas 

M Geschichte der francosischen Litteratur, p. 273: "Und uns 

von Hilarius drei lateinische Schauspiele erhalten (Daniel, 

Lazarus, Xikolaus) von denen die beiden letzteren lyrische Gesange, man 
mochte sagen Aden, einschliessen." 

00 Op. cit., p. 14 with reference to plays represented on the feast day of 
St. Nicholas : "Zwei solcher noch mehr den Charakter von Hymnen tragenden 
Spiele stammen aus der Klosterschule von Hildesheim." Cf. p. 70 concerning 
the scholars' play: "Das Hildesheimer Spiel auch in Strophenbau seine 
Zwitterstellung zwischen Hymnen und Drama nicht verleugnet ;" and cf. 
further p. 75: "Bei alledem blieb doch aber der Charakter der Hymne vor- 
herrschend durch die gleichmassige Stropheneinteilung." 

87 LesMystcres (1880), Vol. I, p. 7. As an example of the pagan influence 
he quotes the following from the speech of the second clerk in the Scholars' 
play (Du Meril, Origines, p. 263) : 

"Jam sol equos tenet in litore 
Quos ad praesens merget sub aequore." 

88 Dramcs Liturgiques da Moyen Age, pp. ix-x : "Ceux-ci (les drames 
liturgiques) etaient de deux sortes: les uns se liaient etroitement aux cere- 
monies religieuses, et faisaient en quelque sorte corps avec elles, en era- 
pruntant le texte liturgique qu'on paraphrasait legerement, et qu'on mettait 
en dialogue pour le besoin de Taction. Les autres, tout en ayant le meme 
caractere religieux, n'avaient pas une liaison aussi intime avec le culte. Ce 
furent deja de veritables creations dramatiques. lis ont pour sujet le texte 
sacre ; mais le developpement qu'on y donna en fit des compositions speciales 
dont l'etendue ne permit plus de conserver leur place dans les oinces. On les 
representa tantot aux processions, tantot pendant ou apres les ceremonies, 
soit au chceur, soit au jube." 



60 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

plays) do not have a close connection with the religious ceremonies, 
but are veritable dramatic creations, special compositions which 
do not keep their place in the religious offices. The music of the 
first type is the liturgical chant, of the second, is special, even for 
the parts of the text borrowed from the liturgy. 69 The distinction 
just made is especially instructive for us when taken in connection 
with the objection of the prior in the first version of our legend: 
"Quod in vestra ecclesia cantatur cantate (the ecclesiastical chant), 
>et nil amplius." In view of the fact that Coussemaker is one of the 
few who have made a careful study of the music in the mediaeval 
drama his remarks should have great weight. And here they are 
especially valuable. 

An analysis of the passages here referred to reveals what is 
clear to one after a careful study of the plays, viz., that their 
verse, in form and lyric quality, suggests the mediaeval Latin hymn, 
and that in spirit they are characterized by unecclesiastical ele- 
ments. 70 Therefore in view of the facts set forth above, I hold 
that the St. Nicholas Miracle Plays originated in connection with 
musical services, during the latter part of the eleventh century 71 
as an unecclesiastical feature of his feast day celebration, and that 
they are indebted to the mediaeval Latin hymn for their form. 
The creative impulse characteristic of the mediaeval renaissance 
found expression in some individual who applied the dramatic 
method to a legend of this popular saint whose history had already 
been set to music. The result was our first Miracle Play. Its 
practical significance consists in the fact that it had its inspiration 

6S Ibid., p. xv: "La musique des premiers etait le chant liturgique; on 
ajoutait seulement une melodie speciale a la partie du dialogue qui n'appart- 
enait pas au texte liturgique. 

"Les autres avaient generalement une musique speciale, meme 

pour les parties du texte empruntees a la liturgie." 

70 Of course there is a common agreement that they were intended for 
his feast day celebration. 

71 The distinctive feature in the verse of both the Hildesheim and the 
Fleury plays which fixes the terminus a quo for their composition is the 
employment of the two-syllable end rhyme. According to Wilh. Meyer 
(Sitzungsberichte der Milnchner Akademie, philos.-hist. Klasse [1882], pp. 
136-137) this form does not go back of the latter eleventh century, and is 
perfected during the first half of the twelfth. 



ST. Nl< SOLAS and ills Mlk.w LE PI 

in his regular feast day services. In its origin it shows a certain 
parallelism to that of the liturgical drama. Thus in the tropes, 
which in point of time preceded the Easter dramatic offices, we have 
to do with unofficial additions to liturgical texts; and in hymns to 
saints, which precede the Miracle Play, we have to do with un- 
official additions to the religious services of the saint's feast day. 
Finally, when this theory of origins which I propose is taken in 
connection with the entry of lay clerks such as Geoffrey and Hilarius 
into the monasteries, with the growth of the unecclesiastical spirit 
in the monastic schools, with the wonderful development in music, 
and hymn writing, and with the awakened interest in the cult of 
St. Nicholas during this period, the essential and causal relation 
of the St. Nicholas Miracle Play to the features of mediaeval life 
discussed in the last chapter becomes evident. 

Relative to the probable place of origin, a question of import- 
ance is that of the priority of the composition of the preserved texts. 
Since the authorship of one, the Hilarius robbers' play, fixes its 
time approximately within the second quarter of the twelfth century, 
it need not be considered here. This leaves the Hildesheim and 
Fleury groups, and the Einsiedeln fragment. Of the two former, 
Dr. Weydig 72 has shown adequately by a comparison of the Hildes- 
heim plays (doivry and scholars ') with those treating the same 
legends in the Fleury manuscript, that those of the Hildesheim 
manuscript (eleventh century) are the earlier and simpler compo- 
sitions. Since the other two plays of the Fleury manuscript rep- 
resent the same stage of development as the dowry and scholars' 
plays, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, they are also to be 
classed as later than those composing the Hildesheim group. And 
a comparison of the Hildesheim and Fleury versions of the scholars' 
legend with the fragment in the Einsiedeln manuscript makes clear 
that the author of the Einsiedeln play evidently employed both the 
Hildesheim and Fleury compositions as models. As the following 
table shows, on the one hand, there is in Einsiedeln and Fleury an 
agreement of significant words, not found in Hildesheim 

72 Weydig, op. cit., pp. 55 ff. and 66 ff. 

"For texts cf. Du Meril, Origines, etc., pp. 264-266; and Anzcuier fiir 
Kunde der deutsclicn 1'orccit, (1859), Nene Folge vi, cols. 207-210. 



62 



NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 



Fleury. Einsiedeln. 

74 1. Nicolaus I. Nicolaus peregrinus ad hospitem: 

Peregrinus, fessus itinere ultra modo suscipe me peregrinum. 

non possum tendere. 2. Hospes ad uxorem: Estne 

3. Vetula. repellendus peregrinus an excipien- 
Hunc personam commendat nimium dus? 

(cf . E.8) et est dignum ut des (cf . 3. Uxor : Pande 

E.7) hospitium. fores isti, peregrinum suscipe 

4. Senex: Christi. 

Peregrine, accede proprius ; 4. Hospes ad Nicolaum : Qui requiem 

quidquam voles quaeris intres. 

tentabo quaerere. 5. Nicolaus: O dapifer, vesci desi- 

5- Nicolaus: dero came recenti. 

Carnem vellem recentem 6. Uxor: Inclyte noster Here, nova 

edere. fercula quaerit (cf. F. 4) habere. 

7. Senex : Qui venit peregrinus. 

Dabo tibi carnem quam habeo, 7. Uxor: Quam petis ut demus nos 
namque came recenti careo. came recenti car emus. 

8. Nicolaus : 8. Nicolaus ad ambos : 

carnem habes Ut quaesita (cf . F. 4) recens caro 

recentem nimium, cautius inveniatur Nunc 

9. Senex et mulier simul: est inventa caro recens 

non est incondonabile. Pie dolor ! O mentem 

nimium feritatis habentem. 
Quod scelus (cf. F. 9) egesti. Ad 

Uxorem : tarn 

magni sceleris Horrifico 

sceleri. 
Then, the opening words of the prayer of St. Nicholas in Fleury ; 
"Pie Deus, cujus sunt omnia, 
Coelum, tellus, aer et maria," 
are summed up in Einsiedeln in his answer to mulier, "Qui regit 
omnia quod est"; and the choral ending 75 Te Deum Laudamus of 
Fleury is suggested in Einsiedeln by the closing words of St. Nich- 
olas, "Lausque Deo detur". Finally, the part played by the wife 
in Einsiedeln, entirely lacking in Hildesheim, is a dramatic develop- 
ment of the possibilities suggested in Fleury by her two-line re- 
sponse to her husband regarding the reception of St. Nicholas, (see 
F. 3 above) and by her joint plea with her husband to St. Nicholas 
for mercy : 

T * The numbers represent the order of speeches in the plays. 
76 As the reader will recall from previous notes, the choral ending in H. 
is O Christi Pietas. 



NICHOLAS and SIS MlKAU.K PLAYS 63 

' Miseri nostri te petimus; 

nam te sanctum Dei cognovimus; 

nostrum scelus abominabile, 

non est tamen incondonabile." 
But, on the other hand, Einsiedeln shows some significant similar- 
ities to Hildesheim. For instance, in the Hildesheim play, the wife 
says, when her husband suggests murdering the sleeping boys, that 
such a crime would offend God too much : 

"Tantum nefas, coniunx, si fieret, 

Creatorem nimis offenderet;" 

but when her husband chides her with having vain fears, 
"Frustra times, bene celabitur. 
Nemo sciet (si) pertractabitur," 

she consents to it: "Fiat quod vis, ego consentiam." In the Einsie- 
deln fragment, Nicholas rebukes the husband for having contemned 
the judgment of God, 

"Quod scelus egesti qui tres mucrone petisti, 
Hospes eos leto dans, sumo iudice spreto !" 

and the wife for having consented to the murder, as was not fitting 
in a woman : 

"(ad uxorem) : Nee bene nupsisti quae conscia facti fuisti 
Tarn magni sceleris, quia consensisse videris 
Horrifico sceleri, nee convenit hoc mulieri." 
In the Fleury version there is no suggestion of the wife's fear of 
their committing an offence against God. On the contrary, she 
incites her husband to the deed : 

"Paupertatis onus sustulimus, 
mi marite, quamdiu viximus; 



Evagines ergo jam gladium; 
Namque potes, morte jacentium, 
esse dives quamdiu vixeris." 

A notable similarity in detail is that uxor is employed exclusively 
for wife in Hildesheim and Einsiedeln, while in Fleury vetula or 

mulicr is the rule, with uxor only once. As to total effect, the 



64 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

author of Einsiedeln has developed the dramatic possibilities of 
the situation as suggested in Hildesheim and Fleury. Some of the 
features which show this are: the specific stage directions, 758 
entirely lacking in Hildesheim and almost so in Fleury, the more de- 
tailed action, and the dramatic quality of the dialogue. 76 As a result of 
our analysis we may conclude that the Hildesheim manuscript con- 
tains our earliest plays, which occupy, as Dr. Weydig correctly puts 
it, a "Zwitterstellung zwischen Hymnen und Drama". Because of 
this and because of their priority in time over any other plays of 
the type, we may regard them as the first Miracle Plays. 

Shall we, then, consider our St. Nicholas Miracle Play a German 
product ? I believe not. For several reasons, I think we may logic- 
ally regard it as a French creation. In the first place, its form, the 
ten-syllable strophe, is evidence in favor of this. According to 
Wilh. Meyer, whose conclusions are based on years of study, the 
ten-syllable verse arose in France and essentially remained there. 77 

In the second place, renaissance activity found expression largely 
in France, especially in Normandy and the Loire valley, and cen- 
tered in its schools. Recall again such famous teachers and 
scholars as Isembert of Rouen, Fulbert of Chartres, Odo of Orleans, 
Lanfranc and Anselm of Bee, Geoffrey of Le Mans, later of St. 
Albans, and Hilarius and Abelard. The conclusions of Leon 
Maitre 78 add further support to this argument. He closes his 
study of the episcopal and monastic schools from the ninth to the 

75a Thus "Uxor ad Nicolaum revertens", "Intrant 
cubiculum ubi juvenes occisi jacent." 

76 The leonine hexameter employed gives more freedom in this respect 
than does the ten-syllable quatrain. 

77 See Fragmenta Burana, p. 118: "Der Zehnsilber ist nicht nur 
in Frankreich geschaffen, sondern auch im Wesentlichen dort geblieben ; in 
der lyrischen und dramatischen Dichtkunst Frankreichs finden wir ihn 
ausserst oft verwendet. Z. B. das S. 56-59 erwahnte alte Sponsus-Drama 
besteht nur aus Zehnsilberstrophen, und von den Nikolausdramen, welche 
Du Meril (Origines) durckt, enthalt das 1. (S. 254) nach 11 Fiinfzehnsilbern 
dann S. 256-262 nur Zehnsilber. Aber fur Deutschland war der Zehnsilber 
ein ungewohntes Vermass." 

78 Leon Maitre, op. cit., p. 299. Wattenbach's comment is in harmony with 
this {Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie (1891), p. 97). "Im elften 
Jahrhundert aber gewinnen die Schulen einen solchen Aufschwung, dass in 
Deutschland bald kein Kleriker mehr als ausreichend gebildet betrachtet wurde, 



ST. NICHOLAS and Ills mira.ii PLAYS 

thirteenth centuries with the statement that one cannot help recog- 
nizing that the principal schools of the Occident pertained to North- 
ern Gaul. And Anz '• in his masterly study of the Latin Magi Play 
maintains that, although in the tenth century Germany, through St. 
Gall, gave France sequences and tropes, France in turn in the 
eleventh century became the standard for Germany. Then, in 
French schools, as we have already learned, unecclesiastical in- 
fluences were strong. A further reason for regarding the St. 
Nicholas Miracle Play as of French origin is the fact that the St. 
Nicholas cult was most active in France during the second half of 
the eleventh century. Finally, the French relations of Hildesheim 
during this century lend additional support to the theory of French 
origin. When Bernward, its thirteenth bishop, in 1006 journeyed to 
Tours and brought back to Hildesheim relics of St. Martin, he made 
one of the French centers of renaissance influence a mecca for Hil- 
desheim monks and clerks. 80 And the fact that Hezilo, bishop from 
1054 to 1079, completed his education in French schools 81 suggests 
that French influence was a dominant factor at Hildesheim during 
his bishopric. 82 

wenn er nicht in Frankreich seine Studien vollendet hatte." Cf. also Meyer 
{op. cit., pp. 179-180), especially lines from a student's song of that period 
(p. 180) : 

"Hospitia in Gallia nunc me vocant studia. 

Vadam ergo; flens a tergo socios relinquo. 

Plangite discipuli, lugubris discidii tempore propinquo. 

Vale, dulcis patria, suavis Suevorum Suevia ! 

Salve, dilecta Francia, philosophorum curia." 
79 H. Anz, Die lateinischen Magierspicle (Leipzig, 1005), p. 127: "Im 
X. Jahrhundert war Deutschland das gebende, und von St. Gallen ging die 
neue kirchliche Dichtung nach Frankreich, Sequenzen und Tropen fanden eine 
zweite Heimstatte in Limoges und von da aus in anderen Orten. Dann begann 
die Kluniazenserbewegung und machte Frankreichs Kirche zur massgebenden, 
in der Zisterzienserreform setzte sich der gewaltige Umschlag fort. Es kam 
eine Zeit, da sogar St. Gallen in Norpert aus Stablo sich einen Abt franz- 
osischer Schule aufdrangen lassen musste." 
""Vide supra, chap, in, p. 29. 
61 Vide supra, chap, in, p. 40. 

82 Another fact of significance here is that a direct route from Hildesheim 
to Tours would take one through Fleury, and also through Belgium and 
Lorraine, the next most active districts for the St. Nicholas cult. 



66 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

These plays, then, are an expression of the mediaeval renais- 
sance and a new feature of the feast day celebration of a popular 
saint. Their origin in connection with schools is what we should 
logically expect, for the spirit of innovation was dominant in them. 
And whether the place of their original composition was Hildesheim, 
Fleury, Angers, or one of the numerous other schools where the 
St. Nicholas cult was established does not materially affect our 
theory. They are essentially the product of French innovations. 
Further, according to the evidence, these plays honor St. Nicholas, 
not as the patron of scholars, but of the monastery or locality where 
his cult was established. 

A word on the subject matter and the technique of these plays 
is in order here. Though they include different dramatic incidents, 
they all emphasize one feature. The situation and the setting may 
be changed, but St. Nicholas always has the same role: he is the 
good bishop, the doer of good deeds for his patrons, whether they 
are wandering scholars, 83 dutiful daughters, distressed parents, un- 
converted pagans or Jews. This was the great feature of his life, 
the one that occurred primarily to the mediaeval writer of legend- 
aries and hymns. This was the feature emphasized, also, in the 
lections 84 in connection with the services of his feast day. 

The technique is simple and clearly distinguishable ; it is the ap- 
plication of the dramatic method to popular, legendary material of 
the saint's life. 

If, by way of summary, we reduce our problem to its simplest 
terms, we have the following: saints' feast day services centuries 
old, renaissance influences in the monasteries where a particular 
saint's cult was established, the history of his life set to music 
and hymns composed in his honor, the application of the dramatic 
method to these unecclesiastical features, and the instituting of a 
new literary fashion. 

83 On the basis of the evidence that the scholars' legend seems to have 
appeared first in the eleventh century and in Western Europe, I suggest 
that it may have originated in connection with the migration of students from 
school to school. 

M The lections of the Sarum Breviary (Cambridge, 1886), Fasciculus III, 
cols. 23-36, though representing the usage of several centuries later than 
our period, may be regarded as typical. 



CHAPTER V. 
The Resukrb i ion of Lazarus, and the Conversion of St. Paul 

The purpose of this chapter is to suggest a new classification for 
the two Latin plays, The Resurrection of Lazarus 1 and The Con- 

rion of St. Paul. 2 It is unnecessary to summarize them here, 
for they are merely dramatizations of the two incidents indicated by 
their title. Two important facts in connection with what follows 
are that a version of each of these plays is preserved in our Fleury 
manuscript, which contains four of the St. Nicholas plays, and that 
the second version of the Lazarus story was written by Hilarius, 
the author of one of the remaining four St. Nicholas plays. 

Now I believe the evidence tends to show, not that these plays 
are logically connected with the Christmas and Easter dramatic of- 
fices, 3 but that they were composed in honor of Lazarus and Paul 
as patron saints, and hence are Miracle Plays. In passing judgment 
on this theory the reader should keep clearly in mind one feature of 
the mediaeval point of view already discussed : Lazarus and Paul 
as mediaeval saints fall in the same general class as Martial, Martin, 
Denis, Catherine, and Nicholas. 4 Furthermore, the eleventh cen- 
tury legend of St. Martial, which made him one of the seventy-two 
disciples of Christ, indicates a decidedly uncritical attitude with 
relation to the modern distinction between legend and Gospel. 

THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS 

The mediaeval legend of St. Lazarus 5 runs as follows : "St. 
Lazarus of Bethany, reputed first Bishop of Marseilles, d. in the 

1 In two versions. One in Fleury Ms. (op. cit.) : cf. Coussemaker, op. cit, 
pp. 221-234, Du Meril, Origines, pp. 213-225, Wright, op. cit., pp. 45-53; the 
other by Hilaritis : cf. Hilarii Versus et Ludi, pp. 24-34, Du Meril, pp. 227-232. 

3 In Fleury Ms.: cf. Coussemaker, pp. 210-220, Du Meril, pp. 237-241, 
Wright, pp. 42-44. 

8 Cf. E. K. Chambers, Med. Stage, Vol. II, p. 59: "The Suscitatio Lazari 
would be appropriate enough as an addition to the Quern Quaeritis and the 
Peregrini in Easter week. The story is told indeed in the fourth week of 
Lent ; but that does not seem a very likely date for the play." 
Vide Supra, chap. Ill, p. 34. 

6 Since my original plan included a study of only St. Nicholas and St. 
Catherine, I have had to limit myself through lack of time to reputable 
secondary authorities for the matter concerning the cult of Lazarus and the 
feast day of St. Paul. 



68 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PEAY 

second half of the first century. According to tradition, or rather 
a series of traditions combined at different epochs, the members 
of the family at Bethany, the friends of Christ, together with some 
holy women and others of His disciples, were put out to sea by the 
Jews hostile to Christianity in a vessel without sails, oars, or helm, 
and after a miraculous voyage landed in Provence at a place called 
today the Saintes-Maries. It is related that they separated there to 
go and preach the gospel in different parts of the southeast of Gaul. 
Lazarus of whom alone we treat here, went to Marseilles, and, hav- 
ing converted a number of its inhabitants to Christianity, became 
their first pastor During the persecu- 
tion of Domitian he was cast into prison and beheaded in a spot 
which is believed to be identical with a cave beneath the prison of 
Saint Lazare. His body was later translated to Autun, and buried in 

the cathedral of that town Before the middle of the 

eleventh century there does not seem to be the slightest trace of the 
tradition according to which the Palestinian Saints came to Provence. 
At the beginning of the twelfth century, perhaps through a confusion 
of names, it was believed at Autun that the tomb of St. Lazurus 
was to be found in the cathedral dedicated to St. Nazarius. A 
search was made and the remains were discovered, which were 
solemnly translated and were considered to be those of him whom 
Christ raised from the dead." 6 

According to the evidence, then, the cult of St. Lazarus was 
not established in Western Europe before the latter part of the 
eleventh century. 7 At the beginning of the twelfth century it was 
centered at Autun in the Loire valley, about a hundred miles south- 
east of Fleury, by the formal translation of his relics. As we have 
already seen in the case of other saints, no circumstances could have 

6 Cf. Leon Clugnet, Cath. Encyc, Vol. IX, pp. 97-98; and Kellner, op. cit., 
pp. 220-224. 

7 The statement of Mgr. Duchesne, who has made a special study of this 
subject, is definite and positive: "Lazare, Madeleine et leur groupe ne furent 
longtemps connus dans tout l'Occident que par l'fivangile et les martyr- 
ologues ; ils n'ont ni legende, ni sanctuaire special ; cette situation se maintint 
pendant le Xe siecle tout entier; nul lieu dans tout le monde latin ou 
Madeleine, Lazare et ses soeurs fussent honores avant le milieu du Xle 
siecle." (Quoted from J. Bedier, Les Legendes Bpiques, Vol. II, p. 69; 
source: Annates du Midi, t. v., 1893.) 



SUBSECTION OF LAZARUS, AND I OF ST. PAUL 69 

been more favorable than this for the spread of his cult in that 
district. Further, when this evidence is taken in connection with 
the facts that Fleury was an important monastic school in the Loire 
valley, 8 and that as a Cluniac center 9 it had a subject monastery 
in the diocese of Autun, the existence at Fleury of a play concerning 
St. Lazarus, composed probably during the first half of the twelfth 
century w has at least a logical explanation. Whether it was written 
at Fleury, Autun, or some other place is not a matter of immediate 
importance for us. The following are the significant facts : 

1. A play having Lazarus for its subject and evidently written 
soon after his cult became established at Autun is found within a 
hundred miles of this center. 

2. It dramatizes the dominant feature of his life, his distinctive 
legend. 

3. It was written, apparently, shortly after the appearance of 
the early St. Nicholas plays, and in a district where the cult of that 
saint would have tended to popularize this dramatic feature. 11 

4. Finally, it is the same type as the play of St. Nicholas. In 
technique, it is the application of the dramatic method to a legend 
from the life of this saint. In form, its verse is the ten-syllable 
strophe of the Hildesheim and Fleury St. Nicholas plays. In spirit, 
Coussemaker classifies it according to its music and composition in 
the same group with the St. Nicholas plays. 12 And Petit de Julle- 
ville writes, not only concerning this version, but also concerning 
that by Hilarius : "Ni Tun ni l'autre ne sont purement liturgiques 

ce sont des oeuvres originales ou la libr-e inspiration 

des auteurs s'est donne carriere et a innove sans scruple." 13 

'See Gallia Christiania, Vol. VIII, cols. 1538-1540. According to this 
authority, it had at one time more than 5000 students in attendance. 

9 Cf. E. Sackur, Die Cluniac ens er (1892), Vol. I. pp. 201-202: "Die Abtei 
Fleury hatte mehrere Filialkloster, die ihr seit eher vollstandig untergeben 
waren, Pressey in der Diocese Autun, Sacerge in Department de L'Indre, etc." 

10 This dating is based on the fact that the prevailing verse form is the 
same as that in the Hildesheim and Fleury St. Nicholas plays. 

"He was still the patron saint of this locality several centuries later: 
L. Petit de Julleville, Les Mystcres, Vol. I. p. 405. records the performance 
of a play at Autun in 1516 on the Life of St. Lazarus, "the patron saint 
of the Aedui." 

13 Vide supra, chap, iv, pp. 46. 

u O/>. tit., Vol. II, p. 54- 



yO NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

Relative to the version by Hilarius, it is significant to recall that 
the author was a wandering scholar who we know spent some time 
at Angers farther down the Loire valley, not far from Fleury. Its 
principal difference from the Fleury version as to form consists 
in a lyric freedom such as the same quality in his St. Nicholas, his 
Daniel, and his non-dramatic poems would lead one to expect. A 
comparative study of these two versions is not necessary for our 
present purposes. They are clearly the same type ; that is the im- 
portant thing for us. 

The possible objection that Lazarus is not the hero of this play 
is not to the point here. The literary fashion initiated by the author 
of the St. Nicholas plays — and I cannot emphasize this too strongly 
— was to honor the patron saint, not necessarily by making him the 
hero of the drama on his feast day, but by presenting the dominant 
feature of his life. Christ appears in this play, I believe, not be- 
cause it has any essential relation to the Christmas or Easter groups, 
but because he happens to be a principal actor in the distinctive 
legend of Lazarus' life. 14 

THE CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL 

In the case of St. Paul, though a feast day in his honor was estab- 
lished early in Western Europe, it was in memory of the translation 
of his relics, reputed to have taken place in Rome, and not of his 
conversion. According to Kellner the feast of his conversion 
was not in the Calendar of Charlemagne belonging to 781, but was 
becoming established by the tenth century. 15 And after its establish- 
ment it was kept as a holiday of obligation in many dioceses of 
France and Germany. At all events, if, as Kellner says, the idea 
of the conversion soon replaced that of the translation, we may 
regard this feast day as established two centuries later. This is 
the important consideration for us. 

The reasons why I believe the play, The Conversion of St. Paul, 
should be classified with the St. Nicholas group follow: 

"The same argument holds in the case of The Conversion of St. Paul. 

^Kellner, op. cit., p. 207: "Der jiingste Codex aber unter den alten, der 
Metzer, jetzt in Bern befindlich, der dem 10. Jahrhundert angehort, hat fur 
den 25. Januar eine Ubertragung und die Bekehrung der hi. Paulus ver- 
zeichnet. Das Andenken an die Bekehrung verdrangte aber bald die Erin- 
nerung an die Translation und gab jenem Tage einen anderen Festcharakter, 
unter welchem es Verbreitung und bald allegemeine Annahme fand." 



RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS, AND CONVERSION < vUl. ,1 

1. Its technique is the same. It is the dramatization of the 
feature, the distinctive legend from the life of St. Paul, in connec- 
tion with his feast day celebration. 

2. Its form is the ten-syllable quatrain, the prevailing form in 
the St. Nicholas, Hildesheim and Fleury plays. 

3. It appears in a district where the St. Nicholas plays have 
instituted a fashion for a saint's feast day celebration. 

4. Its spirit is unecclesiastical. Coussemaker groups it with 
the plays already mentioned. In fact, as Petit de Julleville puts 
it : "Tout element purement liturgique a disparu." 16 In my opinion 
the real purpose of the play was pointed out several years ago by 

Sepet : "II faut done considerer la piece comme composee 

et representee pour la divertissement des ecoliers de Saint-Benoit- 
sur-Loire a Toccasion de la fete d'un de leurs saints patrons." 17 

Thus, as I suggested at the beginning of this chapter, these plays 
are the same type as those of St. Nicholas ; and the evidence points 
to the conclusion that they are an expression of the fashion insti- 
tuted by the plays in honor of that saint. 

16 Op. cit, p. 79. 

17 Origin es Catholiques du Theatre Modeme (1901), p. 77. 



CHAPTER VI. 
St. Catherine and Her Play 

In this chapter I shall show that the evidence concerning the 
relation of St. Catherine's cult to her play at St. Albans harmonizes 
with that presented in the case of St. Nicholas, and shall give my 
reason for considering the trial and martyrdom the most probable 
subjects of her play. It is sufficient for the present to state that 
according to legend Catherine was an Oriental saint noted for her 
learning, that she suffered martyrdom at Alexandria in the fourth 
century, and that her body was carried by angels to Mt. Sinai where 
healing oil continually flowed from her tomb. At this place a 
monastery was founded in her honor. 

There is no evidence of her cult in Western Europe, either 
through the translation of her relics, the assignment of a day to 
her in calendars and martyrologies, or through any sort of honor- 
ing whatever before the second quarter of the eleventh century. 1 
Furthermore, during the entire eleventh century her cult centered at 
one place so far as France and Germany are concerned: 2 and that 
place was Rouen. In a Translatio et Miracula written shortly after 
1050 we have a contemporary account of the establishing of her 
cult at the abbey of the Holy Trinity, Rouen, and of the miracles 
performed there through her power. 3 According to this record, 
Symeon, a monk from the monastery of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai, 
in 1025 came into Western Europe with some companions to 

x The general sources employed in this study are the same as those in- 
dicated at the opening of the chapter on St. Nicholas. 

2 She was known in Italy through two hymns composed in her honor by 
Alphanus, bishop of Salerno (1058-1085). For text see Patrologia Latino, 
Vol. CXLVII, cols. 124 ff. ; and Anal. Hymn., Vol. L (1903), pp. 333-334. 

8 See Anal. Bolland., Vol. XXII (1903), pp. 423-438: Sanctae Catherinae 
Virginis et Martyris Translatio et Miracula Rotomagensis saec. xi; accord- 
ing to Ms. (R) in Codice Rotomagensi U.22, saec. xiii, fol. 109V-115V, with 
supplementary notes from Ms. (A) in Codice bibliothecae publicae sancti 
Audomari 27, saec. xi, fol. 8-1 1. For evidence to prove that the account was 
written about 1050, summarized by A. Poncelet, see op. cit., pp. 423-437. For 
another contemporary account see Mon. Germ. Hist. Scr., Vol. VIII, pp. 398- 
399: Hugonis Chronicon; cf. also Gallia Christiania, Vol. XI, col. 124 ff., and 
Hist. Litt de la France, Vol. XXII, pp. 122-124. 



ST. CATHERINE AND HER PI. 73 

collect offerings for his monastery. 4 When he came to Rouen, Rich- 
ard, Duke of Normandy, received him kindly and gave him large 
offerings. These Symeon sent back by his companions, but he re- 
mained for two years with Goscelinus, a noble of Rouen. At this 
time Goscelinus decided to found a monastery to the Holy Trinity. 
This was consecrated in 1030, and Isembert was made its first 
abbot. 5 In this monastery Symeon deposited relics of St. Catherine 
which he had brought with him from her tomb at Mt. Sinai. 6 From 
these relics, three minute bones, flowed the miraculous healing oil, 
just as it did from the tomb of the Saint at Mt. Sinai. In short, the 
shrine became a mecca for the afflicted in the district around Rouen. 
The eighteen miracles recorded by the narrator are a conventional 
list, ranging from a story of how Isembert, the first abbot, was cured 
of a toothache by the use of the oil, to an account of a raving 

4 Such assistance to Oriental monasteries from the people of Western 
Europe was evidently a common practice. Cf. L. Brehier, L'eglise et I'Orient 
au Moyen Age. Les Croisades (1907), pp. 30-31: "L'usage s'introduit 
d'ailleurs au Xe siecle de donner en toute propriete aux monasteres de Terre 
Sainte des biens-fonds situes en Occident dont les moines de Jerusalem 
viennent recueillir les revenus. Telle est la dotation faite en 993 par Hugue 
marquis de Toscane et Juliette sa femme au Saint-Sepulchre : les revenus de 

biens situes dans les comtes d'Orvieto, devaient sevir a 

1'entretien des moines de Sancte-Marie la Latine de Jerusalem et des pelerins 
auxquels ils donnaient l'hospitalite. L'eglise fondee par Charlemagne ex- 
istait done encore a cette epoque. Des donations analogues furent faites par 
Richard II due du Normandie au Saint-Sepulchre et meme a des monas- 
teres du Sinai. Chaque annee des moines venaient a Rouen et retournaient 
en Palestine charges de presents. Au debut Xle siecle, l'eglise du Saint- 
Sepulchre possedait plusieurs terres en Italie et dans le midi de la France." 
(Raoul Glaber, I, 5, 21; Vita S. Simeonis, M. G. ss., VIII, 210). 

5 Cf. Orderic Vitalis, op. cit., Bk. Ill, chap. i. 

fl See Anal. Bolland., xxii, p. 427 for the story of his securing the relics. 
Thus : Certain monks guarded St. Catherine's tomb and received in a vase 
the miraculous healing oil that flowed from it. Of Symeon the narrator 
writes : "Sed ut narrationis nostrae ordinem prosequamur inter eosdem 
fratres, quorum supra meminimus, erat quidam summae sanctltatis ac pru- 
dentiae, nomine Symeon, qui divino spiritu plenus tamquam pater ab omni- 
bus calebatur. Hie denique cum suae septimanae ordine supradicto funge- 
retur officio, divina favente gratia, tali insignitus est dono. Nam cum illo 
salutaria olei liquore tria admodum minuta de sarcofago distillantia meruit 
ossa excipere : quae diligenter collecta in vitrea cum ipso oleo recondita 
secum conservavit multis postmodum profutura." 



74 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

maniac restored to his senses before her shrine. The name of the 
monastery was soon changed from the Mount of Holy Trinity to 
the Mount St. Catherine. Rouen, then, was the center of the St. 
Catherine cult in Western Europe during the eleventh century. 
There she was a patron saint, first of her monastery, and afterwards 
of the district around it. 

Now there are several significant facts to connect with the evi- 
dence here summarized. In the first place, the monastery of St. 
Catherine conducted a famous school under the direction of Isem- 
bert, who knew how by his writings to popularize a saint. 7 A second 
fact of importance is that Isembert composed, as the reader will 
recall, a musical office to St. Nicholas ; and Ainard, one of his pu- 
pils, did a like honor for St. Catherine. 8 The significant fact in this 
for us is that the monastery of St. Catherine was a center of renais- 
sance innovations for saints' services, and was in touch with the 
cult of St. Nicholas. Again, Isembert was a monk of the Cluniac 
order. 9 This undoubtedly helped to keep Rouen in touch with the 
activities of the Loire valley, where the Cluniacs centered, and 
where renaissance influences were strong. 

But since St. Albans, England, is the immediate locality for the 
miraculum of St. Catherine, it is important for us to know its rela- 
tion to Normandy and Rouen, and its attitude toward renaissance 
innovations of the eleventh century. According to Matthew Paris, 
the rule of Richard, the Norman abbot who called Geoffrey to 
St. Albans to teach, marked the beginning of Norman supremacy 

7 Leon Maitre, op. cit., p. 121 : "Aux portes de Rouen, sous la direction 
de l'allemand Isambert, prosperait l'ecole de Sainte Catherine du Mont . . 
. . . Isambert, dit une vieille chronique, ne le cedait a personne de son 
temps pour la connaisance des arts liberaux, et nul ne savait mieux que lui 
populariser un saint par ses ecrits." 

8 L'Abbe A. Collette, op. cit., p. 64. Possibly Collette has in mind the one 
which Vitalis mentions (Eccl. Hist., Bk. IV, chap, xviii) : "Hie (Ainardus) 
fuit Teutonicus, geminaque scientia pleniter imbutus, versificandi et modu- 
landi cantusque suaves edendi peritissimus. Hoc evidenter probari potest, 
in historiis Kiliani Guirciburgensis episcopi, et Katherinae virginis, aliisque 
plurimis cantibus quos eleganter idem edidit in laudem Creatoris." Accord- 
ing to Vitalis, Ainardus died in 1078. 

9 Cf. E. Sackur, op. cit, Vol. II, p. 50. 



st 75 

there. 10 And the affiliation of this abbey with Rouen is shown by the 
fact that Richard in 1115 called Geoffrey, archbishop of that 
diocese, to St. Albans to dedicate a new church there. 11 Relative to 
renaissance innovations, there is evidence that even early in the 
eleventh century this abbey adapted its feast day services to the 
same type as prevailed on the continent. Alfric, abbot 1006 ff., 
while chanter of the monastery, composed and set to music a historia 
in honor of its patron saint. 1 - A further fact of importance in con- 
nection with our study is that by the time of the Danish invasion of 
the eleventh century there was in this abbey an altar to St. Nicholas. 
Under it the abbot concealed the relics of St. Alban. 13 Finally, 
Geoffrey, the author of the Dunstable St. Catherine play, w r as from 
Normandy, 14 a district in which the cult of St. Nicholas was 

10 M. Paris, op. cit., p. 1005. Under Richardus decimus quintus, 1097-1119 
he writes: "Hie suscepit curam pastoralem, post mortem venerabilis Pauli 
Abbatis, determinata lite, quae in Conventu exorta fuerat, inter Normannos 
(qui jam multiplicati involuerunt) & Anglos (qui jam senescentes & fan- 
minuti occubuerant) post mortem dicti Pauli Abbatis, Anno quinto sequente, 
tempore Willielmi Regis secundi, Anno videlicet Gratiae, M. XC. VII. Hie 
ab egregia Normannorum stirpe trahens originem, plurimorum tarn Parentum 
quam Amicorum fruebatur alloquiis fovebatur obsequiis, & sustentabatur 
auxiliis." 

11 Ibid., p. 1006: "Ad ejus (Richardi) quoq. titulum spectat immortalem 
quod ecclesiam beati Albani quam praedecessor ejus Paulus fabricaverat im- 
mediatus, magnifici fecit dedicari anno gratiae M. C. XV. ab Archiepiscopo 
Rothomagensi Gaufredo." 

13 M. Paris, ibid., p. 996: "Iste (Alfricus) visione praemonitus sancti 
Albani, quam nunc cantator composuit Historiam, et eidem Notam melicam 
adaptavit: & auctoritate fratris sui Archiepiscopi, multis locis Angliac 
fecit publicari, diemque ejusdem Martyris honorari. Statuens ut die Jovis 
(nisi praeoccupatur legitimis temporibus) missa de ipso cum pertinentiis, 
solemniter celebretur." This Alfric was the second of that name at St. 
Albans. 

13 M. Paris, ibid.: "In cujus (Alfrici) tempore, se praeparaverunt Dani 
cum rege suo, hostiliter Angliam intrare, ipsam feraliter vastaturi, vel suo 
denominatui subjugaturi. Quod cum Anglis innotuit, experti saepe feroci- 
tatem earum & avaritiam, timuerunt valde, quia Regem habebant pacificum 
& imbellem. Praeparaverunt, igitur arma. civitates cum castris communientes. 
& thesauros suos abscondentes. Abbas igitur Alfricus, fecit reliquias Sancti 
Albani, muro quodam salvo & secreto, cum feretro recondi, scilicet sub 
Altari Sancti Nicholai." 

" M. Paris, op. cit., Vide supra, chap. 1, p. 5. 



y6 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

especially active during this period; and he belonged to the secular 
clerks, who were leaders in literary innovations of the sort that 
interest us. 

Before inquiring into the subject of our St. Catherine play, I 
give in summary her legend as compiled by Metaphrastes : 15 St. 
Catherine, a Christian girl of eighteen, learned in philosophy be- 
yond the scholars of her day, lived in Alexandria at the time of the 
Emperor Maximinus. During his reign he sent out an edict that 
all his subjects should appear with sacrifices and worship the god 
of their country. St. Catherine, from her house, heard the noise 
outside of people coming to worship ; aroused, she hastened to the 
Emperor, and boldly spoke against his gods and in behalf of the 
true God. He was unable to argue against her successfully, but 
had her imprisoned, and sent out another edict ordering the wisest 
men of the land to appear and defend the religion of his gods. On 
the day appointed they came. But as a result of a dramatic debate, 
in which Catherine quoted in her defense passages from Homer, 
Plato, and the Sibyl, prophesying the birth of Christ, she overcame 
them all, and persuaded them, fifty in number, to accept her belief. 
The Emperor, enraged, ordered them burned to death at once. 

On the evening of the same day some of the pious who went out 
to collect the remains of the martyrs found the bodies sound and 
whole, not a hair consumed. Then Maximinus tried to win Cath- 
erine over by flattery and promises ; but since he was unsuccessful 
in this, he ordered her flogged and thrown into prison again. Soon 
Augusta, his wife, heard of this defender of Christianity, and 
through the assistance of Porphyrius, the general of the army, vis- 
ited her in prison one night. As a result, the Empress, Porphyrius, 
and the soldiers were converted. After some time the Emperor had 
St. Catherine brought before him again. When despite his com- 
mand she refused to renounce faith in the true God, at the sugges- 
tion of a prefect, he ordered made, as an instrument of torture, a 

15 See Patrologia Graecia, Vol. CXVI, cols. 275-302. (Latin translation by 
Surius). Cf. also Mombritius, Sanctuarium seu Vitae Sanctorum (Paris, 
1910), Vol. I, pp. 283-287; and Aurea Legenda (ed. Dr. Th. Graesse, 1890), 
pp. 789-797, and Anal. Bolland. (1907), Vol. XXVI, pp. 12-32 for Latin tr. 
of Arabic life closely related to early Greek texts. Concerning Metaphrastes, 
his period, etc., see Schaff-Herzog, Encyc. of Religious Knowledge (191 1), 
Vol. X, pp. 414-416. 






ST. CATHERINE AND HER PLAY J J 

four-wheeled car with each wheel having nails pointing outward, 
and threw her in front of this. It passed over her without doing 
any harm, for an angel protected her; but it killed many infidels 
standing near. Just at this time the Empress ran out from the 
palace, ordered the council dismissed, and the persecution stopped. 
The Emperor did stop long enough to have his wife put under the 
most brutal and fiendish tortures, and then beheaded. Upon a 
protest from Porphyrius because of this atrocious deed, he had him 
and his soldiers put to death also. Finally, on November 25th St. 
Catherine was beheaded. At the execution, milk instead of blood 
flowed from her body. As already stated, angels carried her re- 
mains to Mt. Sinai. 

This is the legend of St. Catherine. Furthermore, it is essen- 
tially all that is included in any of the early lives of her. There 
are differences or additions in regard to minor details in some ver- 
sions, but no episodes are added. 16 

The feature of St. Catherine's legend is clearly her martyrdom 
with its double interest, her trial and her passion. This is the 
theme of hymns in her honor, 17 of lections on her feast day. Fur- 
ther, this is the popular theme in later St. Catherine plays. 18 The 
logical conclusion, then, is that just as the distinctive legends of 

16 For the most complete study of her legends, see Hermann Kunst, Ge- 
sckichte der Legenden der h. KatJierina von Alexandrien, usw. (Halle, 1890). 
See also Hermann Varnhagen, Zur Geschichte der Legenden der Katherina 
von Alexandrien (Erlangen, 1891) ; H. Varnhagen, same title: reprinted from 
Festschrift der Universitdt Erlangen (1901), pp. 1-14. For best brief sum- 
mary regarding legend and festival see Kellner, op. cit., pp. 228-229. The 
legend of St. Catherine's conversion is evidently a thirteenth or fourteenth 
century addition: see Varnhagen, op. cit. (1891), pp. 18 ff. 

17 Hymns in her honor seem to be exceedingly rare for the eleventh 
century. I have found the two by Alphanus (loc. cit.), and one in Mone, 
op. cit., Vol. Ill, pp. 349-350. With regard to the lections, even the Sarum 
Breviary, ut sup. Fasciculus III (Proprium Sanctorum, cols. 1104-1116, 
which is of the sixteenth century, stresses only the feature of her life 
mentioned above. 

"Many of the references to lost plays on St. Catherine, as in the case 
of this one, are vague. For references see E. K. Chambers, op. cit., Vol. II, 
appendix W; L. Petit de Julleville, Les Mystcres, Vol. II, pp. 1-185; and H. 
Varnhagen, op. cit., 1901, pp. 13-14. Wilh. Creizenach, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 
125-126 gives a summary of the German Katherine play, which includes her 
first appearance before the Emperor, her trial, and her martyrdom. 



78 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

St. Nicholas, St. Lazarus, and St. Paul were the ones dramatized on 
their feast days, so beyond a reasonable doubt this feature was the 
one dramatized in honor of St. Catherine. 19 The play may have 
been only of the trial, or only of the passion, or it may have in- 
cluded both. The only definite suggestion from Matthew Paris is 
his reference to the copes borrowed from St. Albans. "Ad quae 
decoranda, petiit a sacrista Sancti Albani, ut sibi Cape chorales ac- 
commodarentur, & obtinuit." This suggests a number of partici- 
pants, and the formal costuming which one would expect in connec- 
tion with the trial scene. 20 However that may be, it is important to 
bear in mind that beyond a reasonable doubt the play, in harmony 
with the fashion already instituted, dramatized the dominant feature 
of St. Catherine's feast day celebration. 

As to form, it was undoubtedly composed in Latin verse, possibly 
with French refrain. Geoffrey was a product of French schools. 
His play was in harmony with a fashion instituted there; and the 
burden of proof rests with him who holds that its form was not in 
accordance with that prevailing in similar plays on the continent. 

"This subject would have made a special appeal to the people in the 
district of St. Albans, for St. Alban was the first English martyr: see Bede, 
Eccl. Hist., Bk. I. chap. vii. 

20 As a matter of pure speculation, one wonders whether the fire which 
destroyed Geoffrey's books and the copes (vide supra, chap, i, p. 5-, footnote) 
originated in connection with the play. 



SUMMARY OF EVID 

The evidence in the preceding pages points to the following con- 
clusions : 

i. The Miracle Play originated in musical - as an un- 

ecclesiastical feature of St. Nicholas' feast day celebration. 

2. It is indebted for its form primarily to hymns in honor of 
saints. 

3. It originated and developed in connection with monastic 
schools, 1 and in connection with patron saints, not of particular 
professions, but of particular monasteries or localities. 

4. It is the application of the dramatic method to the legend 
or legends which expressed the distinctive feature of the particular 
saint's life in connection with the feast day celebration. 

5. It is a product of the mediaeval renaissance, which was most 
active in Normandy and the Loire valley; and in form and spirit it 
is essentially a French creation. 

6. It is one expression of the eleventh and twelfth century 
movement to free the drama from the church. 2 

1 Doubtless if the evidence were complete, one would find that it became 
an important feature also in cathedral schools (cf. following footnote). 

3 Related to this type in that particular are the Daniel, composed by the 
students of the cathedral school at Beauvais, ca. 1140 (see E. de Coussemaker, 
Les Drames Liturgiques, pp. 69 ff.), and the plays referred to by Gerhoh 
von Reichersperg, one of the most distinguished theologians of the twelfth 
century. The spirit of the former is well summarized by Professor Meyer 
(Fragm. Burana, p. 56) : "Gerade das Danielspiel ist ein schones Erzeugniss 
der reinen Freude an Wohllaut in Worten und Tonen." Regarding the latter, 
Gerhoh von Reichersperg wrote in the second half of the twelfth century 
concerning conditions relative to feast day plays in the cathedral school at 
Augsburg, when he had been teacher there in 11 19 (P. L., Vol. CXCIV, cols. 
890-891) : Cum neque in refectorio (fratres) comederent exceptis rarissimis 
festis, maxime in quibus Herodem repraesentarent Christie persecutorem. 
parvulorum interfectorem seu ludis aliis aut spectaculis quasi theatralibus ex- 
hibendis comportaretur symbolum ad faciendum convivium in refectorio aliis 
pene omnibus temporibus vacuo. Cogor hie reminisci propriae stultitiae in 
amaritudine animae meae dolens et poenitens, quod non semel talibus insaniis 
non solum interfui; sed etiam praefui utpote Magister scholarum et doctor 
juvenum, quibus ad istas vanitates non solummodo frenum laxavi, sed etiam 
stimulum addidi pro affectu stultitiae, quo tunc infectus eram, et in quo supra 
multos coaetaneos meos profeceram." It is significant to recall, in this 



80 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

7. It should probably include among the preserved plays of this 
type, in addition to the St. Nicholas group, the Latin St. Paul and 
Lazarus plays. 

8. The St. Catherine Miracle Play of Dunstable in its origin 
had a close and essential relation to the early St. Nicholas plays. 

connection, that the writer, shortly before teaching at Augsburg, and assisting 
in the plays there (cf. "etiam praefui, etc.," above), had studied at Hildes- 
heim (cf. Cath. Encyc, Vol. VI, p. 472) the home of the eleventh century 
St. Nicholas plays, and that the Holy Innocents were regarded as the first 
martyrs or saints. 






INDEX OF BIBLIOGRAPHY IN FOOTNOTES* 



Acta Sanctorum, 45. 

Allen, P. S., 12, 41. 

American Historical Review, 12. 

Analccta Bcllandiana, 2. 

Analecta Hymnica, 15. 

Anz, H., 65. 

Anzeiger f. Kunde d. dent. Vorzeit, 8. 

Baudot, J., 25. 

Bede, 36. 

Bedier, J., 44. 

Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina, 45. 

Blume, Clemens, 15. 

Bohnstedt, Kurt. K. Rud., 22. 

Brehier, L„ 31, 33. 

Bulaeus, C. E., 20. 

Catal. Codd. Hagiog. Bibl. Reg. 

Bruxel., 2. 
Catal. Codd. Hagiog. Bibl. Nat., 45. 
Catholic Encyclopaedia, 19. 
Chambers, E. K., 3. 
Champollion Figeac, 9. 
Chevalier, Ul., 48, 57. 
Cloetta, Wilh., 6. 
Collette, L'Abbe A., 33. 
Collier, J. P., 20. 
Coussemaker, E. de, 8. 
Creizenach, Wilh., 3, 18. 
Daniel, H. A., 45. 
Dreves, H. M. and Blume, Clemens, 

45- 
Du Cange, 4. 
Duckett, G. F., 55. 
Du Meril, 1, 58. 
Dummler, E., 8. 
English Historical Review, 39. 
Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 11. 
Fagniez, W. G., 37. 
Fitzstephen, Wm., 7. 
Fragmenta Burana, 43. 
Francesco Nitti di Vito, 45. 



Gallia Christiania, 47. 

Garnett, Richard. 10. 

Gautier, L., 37. 

Guibert de Nogent, 30. 

Hilarii Versus et Ludi, 9. 

Hist. Litt. de la France, 16. 

Hroswitha, 12. 

Jehan le Marchant, 4. 

Jacobus de Voragine, 48. 

Julleville, L. Petit de, 6, 30. 

Kellner, K. A. H., 25. 

Knust, H., 77. 

Kurtz, J. H., 26. 

Lange, C, 10. 

Lanson, G., 44. 

Lefranc, A., 30. 

Legenda Aurea, 48. 

Liber Miraculorum Sancti Fides, 28. 

Lindner, Th.. 40. 

Maitre, Leon, 39. 

Manly, J. M., 7, 12. 

Marignan, A., 25. 

Mombritius, 76. 

Mane, F. J., 45. 

Meyer, Wilh., 43, 60. 

Mon. Germ. Hist., Script 

Morel, P. Gall, 8. 

Mussafia, A., 4. 

Orderic Vitalis, 29. 

Paris, M., 5. 

Patrologia Graecia, 76. 

Patrologia Latina, 30. 

Pertz, 29. 

Rashdall, Hastings, 21. 

Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, 

46. 
Richer, 40. 
Sackur, Ernst, 39. 
Sarum Breviary, 66. 
Schofield, W. H., 41. 



♦Page citation is made to the first reference to bibliographical item. As 
a rule, separate articles in encyclopaedias, etc., are not listed. Occasionally, 
both the man and his work or compilation are cited. 



82 NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 

Schubiger, P. A., 36. Ward, A. W., 7. 

Sepet, M., 58. Warren, F. M., 29. 

Suchier, H., 13. Wattenbach, W., 40. 

Thalhofer, H., 25. Weydig, O., 1. 

Vanhagen, H., 77. Wright, Thomas, 8. 

Wace, La Vie de Saint Nicholas, 3. Zeitschr. f. d. Alt., 8. 



INDEX TO THE MORE IMPORTANT NAMES, PLACES, TITLES 

AND MATTERS 



Abelard, 9 n., 14 11., 16, 41, 42. 

Ad Petrum Abaclardum. 16. 

Ainard, 37, 64. 

Albans, St., 4 n., 21, 48, 72, 74. 78. 

Allen, P. S., 12, 41 n. 

Angers, 4-'. 49, f., 66, 70. 

Anz., H. 65. 

Autun, 68 f. 

Bari, Italy, 45. 

Becket. Thomas, 7. 

Bedier, J., 44. 

Bernard de Quincey, 38. 

Bernward, 29, 65. 

Bertin. St.. 38. 

Blumc, Clement, 15, 43. 

Bodel, Jean, 2, 3. 

Brehier, J., 31, 33, 73. 

Bulaeus, C. E., 20, 21, 22. 

Catherine, St., 2. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, II, 17, 

18 n., 20, 21, 23, 25, 34, 37, 41, 57- 

67, 72 ff. 
Chambers. E. K., 3 n., 18 n., 77 n. 
Chanson de Geste, 44. 
Charitas, St., 51, 55 f. 
Christmas Play, 18 n.. 67, 70. 
Cloetta, Willi., 6 n. 
Clugnet, Leon, 34. 
Cluniac, 39, 55, 69, 74. 
Collette, L'Abbe, 36. 37, 43. 
Collier. J. P., 20. 
Coussemaker, E. de, 59, 69, 71. 
Creizenach, Wilh., 3 n.. 18 n., 41 n.. 

77 n. 
Crusades, 31. 
Daniel, 14 n., 17. 
De Paf>a Scholastico, 16. 
Dowry, Play. 8, 57, 61. 
Du Cange, 4 n., 52 n. 
Du Meril, E., 14 n. 
Dummler, E., 8 n. 
Dunstable, 6, 11, 75. 
Easter Play, 18 n., 67, 70. 
Einsiedeln, 8, 47, 61 ff. 
Evolution, theory of in drama, 9 ff. 



Fagniez, G., 37 f. 

Farced Epistle in relation to drama, 

2 n.. 13, 14, 15, 17- 
Fides, St., 8, 28, 32, 50 n. 
Fitzstephen, Wm., 6, 7, 10. 
Flcury, 1, 8, 48, 57. 61 ff., 67ft, JI. 
Gall, St., 36. 
Garnett, Richard, 9, 13. 
Geoffrey of St. Albans, 5, 6, 9. 21, 4*. 

61, 64, 74, 75, 78. 
Gerbart of Rheims, 40 n. 
Gerhoh von Reichersperg, 79. 
Getron and Euphrosina, 9, 58. 
Guibert de Nogent, 30. 
Helena, St., 31. 

Hezilo, Bishop of Hildersheim, 40. 65. 
Hilarius, 9, 13, 14 n., 16, 41. 42, 59. 

61, 64, 67, 70. 
Hilarius, his Daniel, 70. 
Hildesheim, 8, 15, 19, 22, 29, 38 n., 40, 

47, 57, 61 ff., 65, 66. 69, 71- 
Hroswitha, II, 12. 
Hymns, 36, 37 n., 43, 57, 58, 59, °°- 

64, 66, 77- 
Isembert, 37, 57, 58 n., 64, 73, 74- 
Jacobus de Voragine, 19, 55 n. 
James, St., 32. 
John the Baptist, 34. 
Julleville, Petit de. 6 n.. 30, 34 59. 

69, 71. 

Kellner, K. A. H., 26 n., 32. 35 n., 70. 

Lanfranc, 41, 42. 

Lazarus, 13, 14, n.. 34, 67 ff., 78. 

Legenda Aurea. 19, 55 "• 

Lindner, Th., 40 n. 

Liturgical play, 10, 13, 17. 59. 61. 

Liturgical associations. 10, 13. 

Loci cancti (St. Nicholas). 46 ff. 

Maitre, Leon. 39. 64. 

Manly, J. M., 3 n., 4 n., 7. 10, 12. 

Marignan. A.. 25 n.. 27, 29 A., 35- 

Martial, St., 34. 67. 

Martin. St., 29, 32. 34, 65, 67. 

Mary. Virgin. 6. 33. 34 



8 4 



NEW THEORY CONCERNING ORIGIN OF MIRACLE PLAY 



Meyer, Wilh., 43, 64, 79- 

Miracle Play, 1-10, 14, 17, 20, 22, 23, 

24, 25, 36, 37, 39, 40, 45, 5i, 56, 

58, 60, 64, 65, 79- 
Monasteries, mediaeval, 24, 37 ff., 72. 

73- 
Monastic literary drama, 11. 
Monumenta Germanic? Historica 

Scriptorum, 23. 
Morality, 4. 
Nicholas, St.. 1, 2, 6, 8, 11, 13, 14 n., 

15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 34, 

37, 38 n., 41, 45 ff-, 56, 60 ff., 64, 

67, 7L 72, 74, 75, 7^- 
Myra, Asia Minor,. 45. 
Nerra, FuTk, 49. 

Notre Dame, miracles of, 4, 23n. 
O Christi Pietas, 57, 62n. 
Odo of Orleans, 41, 42, 64. 
Orderic Vitalis, 29 n., 50, 74, 76. 
Paris, Matthew, 5, 21, 42, 74, 78. 
Paul, St., 34, 67 ff., 70 ff., 78. 
Plays, time of presentation of, 57 n. 
Poncelet, A., 72 n. 
Rashdall, Hastings, 21, 22. 
Renaissance, Mediaeval, 40 ff., 60, 64, 

66,74. 
Representacio, 3 n. 
Richer, 40 n. 
Robbers, play of 8 ff. 
Rome, 32. 

Rouen, 37, 48, 57, 64, 72, 73, 74, 75- 
Rustebeuf, 4, 6 n. 
Saints, 

cult of, 25, 26 ff., 30, 45 ff., 66. 



feast days of, 13, 32 ff., 36 n., 39, 

61, 66. 

legends of, 12. 

lives of, 17. 

Oriental, 33, 72. 

relics of, 27 ff. 

pilgrimages to shrines of, 30 ff., 

50, 73- 

translations of, 2^, 29, 45 ff., 68, 

70. 
Schofield, W. H, 41 n. 
Scholars, play and legend of, 8, 22, 

57, 61. 
School saints, 13, 14, 17 ff., 22, 39, 66. 
School play, 17. 
Symeon, 72, 73. 
Sepet, 58, 59, 71. 
Sponsus, play of, 17. 
-Stephen, St., 2 n., 4, 14, 15. 
Suchier, H., 13, 14, 58, 59- 
Terence, 11. 
Trope, 15 n., 37 n., 61. 
Tunison, J., 12. 
Unecclesiastical influences, 24, 35, 

40 ff., 56, 57, 60, 66, 76. 
Vernacular, employment of, etc., 13. 

14, 15, 16, 17. 
Vincent, St., 28. 
Wace, 3, 19, 22. 
Ward, A. W., 7 n., 11. 
Warren, F. M., 29. 
Wattenbach, W., 40. 
Weydig, Otto, 1 ff., 17, 18 n., 20 n., 23,, 

33, 59, 61, 64. 
Young, Karl. 15 n. 



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